Fade into Darkness
by Suntiger
Summary: Earth (World of Pocahontas) is gone. To get it back, I have to help a fire wielding maniac. Getting stuck in his body was not a part of the plan. Warning: the beginning is very slow. Set after KH 3D. Rated for foul language. Eventually Lea/OC
1. Invader Lea

**Chapter 1: Invader Lea**

It was a bitter chilly evening in Virginia. The trees were naked, the snow wasn't going anywhere, and driving on the icy road was like flirting with Death. The starless, dark sky was a nagging reminder of how late I was. I was on my way home from class and already knew my siblings were trashing my room. Hopefully my house mate was there to keep an eye on them but I doubted it. She was barely there to begin with seeing as her boyfriend lived on campus and so she spent most of her time at the university with him.

I was about to make a right turn when a black hole formed in front of my car, causing me to shriek and slam on the breaks but it was too late. The person who appeared out of nowhere collided with my windshield with a loud _thud_ and a _crack_ and went flying somewhere. The car skidded on the ice but I managed to steer the wheel and regain control of the car before it could spin.

"OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD! I HIT SOMEONE! HOLY SHIT!" I screamed as the car came to a slow stop. I lunged out of my seat to go check on the person the moment the car came to a halt, but forgot about the seatbelt so I was quickly thrown backwards into my seat.

"Ugh, use your brain, you idiot!" I smacked my palm to my forehead and tried to steady my breathing. I glanced at rear view mirror but found no trace of whoever I hit. I then checked myself, noticing the redness on my neck where the seat belt had rubbed against it. I had no cuts or bruises so I considered myself lucky. I parked the car and turned off the engine. I stepped out to inspect the car to see my front bumper was dented.

I groaned. "Damn." Panic started to seize my nerves when I didn't find anyone but then I spotted something red among the white snow.

Not blood. Red hair. Thick red, spiky, disheveled hair.

I stared at what seemed to be a male figure wearing a black cloak, thinking he looked human enough, but couldn't find a plausible explanation of where he came from. I returned to my car and opened the trunk. I located my brother's metal baseball and swung it a few times to make sure it was usable.

Oh yeah. As if I really needed to defend myself, but hey! The crazy alien popped out of a black hole! How was I supposed to know?

I slowly stepped closer, inch by inch, and craned my neck to get a better glimpse of the man. I poked him with the bat and quickly jumped back but got no response. I poked him again. And again. And again.

Nothing.

Maybe he was dead?

"Owwww," I heard him grumble and he began to move. I screeched and whacked him on the head. He slumped back down and didn't move. I waited a few minutes. I poked him. No response. I growled in frustration with myself.

Well if he wasn't dead before he might be dead now.

I stepped forward with some new confidence and gingerly checked his neck for a pulse, sighing in relief when I found one. I looked him over, deciding he looked very human and around my age. His face had angular characteristics and his forehead had a smear of blood.

_Spectacular._

Now I needed to take him to a hospital, which was nearly two hours away. How was I going to get him into my car? There was no way I was going to be able to pick him up. He was too heavy even despite his slender frame.

I called my brother on my cell phone and got an answer on the fifth ring.

"Where are you?" he snapped. "You are SO late. Mom's going to have your ass. You were supposed to take us home hours ago."

"I just had an accident," I said calmly. "I hit someone."

There was a pause. "Are they dead?"

I looked down. "I don't think so."

"That's reassuring," he said. I could see him rolling his eyes in my head. "Are you dead?" he joked.

"Yes, I just happened to reanimate," I scoffed. "I have to take him to the hospital. Can you get a hold of Mom and tell her what happened?"

"You know she's gonna flip out, right?" He was annoyed.

"Yeah, I'll deal with her later," I told him. "Right now I have to make sure he's not road kill."

"What about the car?"

"Minimal damage," I said. "Nothing I can't get you to fix later."

"Oh well gee thanks."

"Bye Marino." I hung up and stared at the unconscious guy. "I'm gonna have to drag you, aren't I? Ugh. So troublesome."

I huffed and placed my hands right below his armpits to drag him to my car, which took me about twenty minutes to do since I kept pausing to take a break. Guy looks like a twig but weighs like a whale!

I studied the guy and then my car, deciding it was probably best to put him in the front seat. He was too tall to fit in the back. At least in the front I could push the seat all the way back and push down the chair part so he could lie down. I could also keep an eye on him. Satisfied with my brain's solution, I dragged him to the other side of the car, opened the door, adjusted the seat and literally threw him in there.

No point in being gentle now.

I returned to the driver's seat and was about to begin the drive to the hospital when my phone rang. "What?"

"Mom wants to know how could you have been so stupid as to hit them," Marino dead panned. "And I'm staying overnight. Apparently she wants me to keep an eye you in case you screw up again."

"How thoughtful of her." I debated with myself in whether I should tell the truth. I shrugged. Might as well. "He popped out of a black hole."

"Sole, we've all popped out of a birth canal at some point of time."

I chuckled at his humor. "No, I mean seriously. A black hole opened up in front of my car and he came out of it. Hit my car head on."

"Really? Cool! Hey wait, that means you can't take him to the hospital."

"Um, yeah I do. He's injured!" I was waving my hands even though he couldn't see me.

"Yeah but if he's an alien the hospital will keep him and you'll be interrogated," he said. "It'll set you back with your university."

I scowled. The hospital keeping him wasn't my problem. I didn't want to deal with an alien. Who knows what kind of hazard he presented. The interrogation, on the other hand, was a problem. I had no desire to deal with government authorities or missing time at school. I had final exams coming up that I did not want to make up for.

I almost asked him what he suggested but I already knew he'd want to take the alien home with him if he could get away with it. I sighed, knowing the alien was going to have to stay at my place until further notice. That didn't solve the issue of his injuries though.

"So what am I supposed to do with a wounded alien? I'm not a doctor."

"Yeah, but you've got classmates who are pre-med majors…right?" He sounded too hopeful.

"That doesn't make them experts, and you know they're not gonna want to keep him a secret," I said, glancing at the alien. Then again, he looked human. Maybe my classmates didn't have to know and I would just tell them that they could practice their knowledge on him.

Eh. I didn't see that ending well.

"Gotta try something though," said Marino. "I'll see you soon. I have to prepare Fiore."

I heard a muffled sound of movement and looked over to see striking green eyes staring back at me.

Red alert: Baseball bat is out of reach.

We stared at each other in silence until he smirked. "You hit like a bitch."

_This is it!_

My heart had skipped a beat, skyrocketed to my throat, and nervously pounded in my ears. My lungs tightened in fear as I felt around for something to hit him with until he lost consciousness again. Alas, I carried no hidden mace or spray in my coat pockets.

Wait, he said something. What did he say?

"Are you going to eat me?" I asked, fighting the urge to scream for help. How the hell is he even conscious?

An eyebrow went up. "Why…would I eat you?"

"You came out of a black hole," I stated.

He was amused. "And so I must want to eat you?"

"Only logical explanation I have so far."

He snorted and struggled against the seat belt. "Not very logical if you ask me."

"Then feel free to explain what would someone or something want after coming out of a black hole," I snapped.

He sighed and rolled his eyes, muttering under his breath. "Girl nearly beats me to death and is more concerned about whether or not I want to eat her." He wiggled an eyebrow. "You know, in other circumstances, I would have taken that question completely different."

Note to self: Make sure you_ KILL_ the next thing that decides to pop out of a black hole.

I scowled. "I thought you said I hit like bitch."

"Well you do. I've been hit by much worse," he said, finding the button to the seat buckle and removed the seat belt I had hastily buckled in.

"Then quit your bitching."

"Oooh. Fiesty. I like that," he smirked.

What is _wrong_ with this thing…person? I stared at him blankly, contemplating on what I should do when he took out a bottle with something green in it and downed it. "What was that?"

"It's called a potion," he answered, nonchalant. "Are you always so full of dumb questions?"

I narrowed my eyes. "Are you always so annoying? Who the hell are you? First, you pop out of nowhere, you hit my car and SURVIVE unfortunately, and now you're insulting me like you know me!"

"Woah! Tone down the noise," he said, waving me off. "So dramatic."

Maybe I had actually died after I lost control of the car. You know? I hit my head too hard, or I hit a boulder, or a tree fell on top of me. These scenes are just the last flashes of my brain until my soul is sent to oblivion.

Might as well see where this takes me. "A potion, you say? You're not going to grow horns or other extra appendages, right?"

"Again, weird." He gave me a funny look. "The potion is just healing me."

"Oh," I said. Well at least I don't have to worry about his injuries now.

"My name is Lea. L-e-a," he said. "Got it memorized?" He pointed to his forehead.

"Isn't that a girl's name?" I teased.

"Well, as you can tell, I'm not a girl," he said, a vein of annoyance on his forehead. "You're supposed to tell me your name."

"My name? Right. Sole," I said. "S-o-l-e."

Lea stared at me curiously. "The shoe? Or Soulay?"

"Soul-leh," I corrected his pronunciation.

"Weird name," he said.

"So princess, where are you from? Outer space?" I preferred him unconscious.

He actually laughed at me! "You could say that."

I jumped out of my car. There was no way in hell I was going to stay in a car with an alien. As cool as some other people would think that is, I'm totally for living instead rather than being subjected to having some spawn from hell burst out of my abdomen.

I've seen _Alien vs. Predator_ too many times.

"Where are you going?" he shouted as I started to walk away. "Don't you have somewhere to be?"

I stopped in my tracks and cursed myself. I spun around to face him. "You were awake the entire time, weren't you?"

He smirked. "You must be really weak if it took you that long to get me to this vehicle."

I drew in a sharp breath and calmed my nerves. It's not like I could actually beat him to death. "Are you going to tell me what you are?"

"It's probably best that you don't know," he smiled. "No worries, I'm one of the good guys."

Oh yeah, because that completely settled my nerves.

Believing I had no choice but to drive to my place, I returned to my car and ignored his arrogant, pleased face as I put the car in drive. I figured I could have fun with this and started to swerve. The first swerve sent him into the car door and he shot me a glare, but then I hit the brakes suddenly and he went forward.

"Lady, can you even drive this thing?" he sneered.

"Sorry," I lied. "Roads are icy."

"No they aren't! You dragged my ass all over it!"

"You do a lot of complaining," I said, tempted to stick out my tongue. "Put your seatbelt back on." He scowled, looking unsure as to what that was. "The thing you unbuckled earlier." I pointed at it.

He rolled his eyes but complied and slept for the rest of the drive. There were many times I debated whether or not I should kick him out of the car and leave him at the side of the road for someone else to deal with.

Alas, my guilty conscious would gnaw at me.

I pulled up to a two-story brick house that had different shades of blue roof tiles and wide windows. A chimney stuck out on the right side. It was the roof that fascinated me when I first saw it. I was reminded of scales on a fish and the way the scales glimmered in the water when the sun hit them.

I shook him by the shoulder but he waved me off in his half awake slumber.

I leaned on my car door, a hand on my hip. "Do you want to stay in the car where it's gonna get really cold? Or do you want to come inside and be warm?"

Green slits glared at me. "Fine." I heard his bones crack as he got out of the car and he groaned. "Where am I?"

I snorted. "Now he asks."

"So this is the person you ran over?" a voice greeted me cheerfully.

A teenager with a squared face framed by dark brown messy hair and curious hazel eyes gazed outside from the upstairs opened window. Fingerless black gloved hands waved at me and I sighed. Marino, my dear annoying little brother, shot me a grin after he inspected the alien. "He looks normal."

"Looks can be deceiving," I mumbled. "Where's Mom and Fiore?"

"Gone home already," Marino said. "Wait right there! Can't have him entering the house yet until we know he's not hostile!"

He had already disappeared from the window before I could tell him that the red haired moron was, so far, only aggravating. Marino appeared at the doorway, holding the door open for me as I dragged my backpack and purse into the hallway. His black extra large shirt made him look lanky and as if he was wearing a dress over his jeans. He leaned against the door to prevent Lea from entering.

"So, I hear you popped out of a black hole?" Marino raised an eyebrow. "And you look pretty healthy for someone who was just hit."

Lea smirked. "I might have."

"He swallowed something green," I told Marino. "Said it healed him, but let me know if he starts to glow."

Lea and Marino sized each other up, something men do I guess. Lea was a head taller than him though, which made it easier for Lea to claim himself the alpha male.

"Marino," he stuck his hand out.

"Lea, commit it to memory," the red head lion-lookalike introduced himself and shook his hand.

Marino snort-laughed. "Don't count it. Alzheimer and dementia runs in our family." Marino didn't take his eyes off of Lea. "Are you a Martian?"

"Aren't you even going to look at my car?" I asked Marino, who in turn waved me off. I muttered under my breath, "Well, thanks for caring!"

Lea folded his arms over his chest. "Not that I know."

"Are you sure?" Marino stroked his chin thoughtfully but in doubt.

"I'm sure."

"How sure?"

Oh here we go. I sighed and headed to the kitchen to let the boys interrogate each other. My nose was welcomed by the scent of pizza on the stove. I eyed the leftover food and empty cans of soda and sighed at the mess that was left behind from my eight year old younger sister. Fiore really needed to learn table manners.

Lea mused. "I'm about…twenty percent sure."

"That's comforting."

They were still circling each other suspiciously while I picked up the melted cheese from the floor, the pepperonis from the chairs and wiped away marina sauce. I trashed all the empty cans and then noticed the sink filled with dishes and tiny mud prints coming from the backyard.

I sighed again. Honestly. This place was so dirty I wouldn't be surprised if the Black Plague restarted here.

At some point Marino permitted Lea to come in, but I was too busy cleaning up the place to notice. An hour later, I took out the extra air mattresses that I kept for my siblings in case they wanted to sleep over and made their beds in the living room. My housemate was most likely not going to show up or question their presence since she appeared only to grab more clothes and make up.

I stared at Lea. "Hey, are you gonna sleep in that?"

He raised an eyebrow and looked down at himself- what seemed to be a black uniform with a cloak appeared to be intact. "Unless you have a better idea?" He wiggled his eyebrow at me and I threw a pillow at his face.

I felt uneasy to have him in my house. For all I knew, he was a perverted serial killer AND an alien.

Why didn't I just set him up in a hotel? Oh hindsight. How I hate you.

"So neither of you answered my question," said Lea. "Where am I?"

"You mean to say that throughout your entire discussion with him, you haven't pieced together your location?" I frowned and Lea glared at me.

"This is planet Earth," Marino replied, elbowing me. "You are in the United States of America, specifically in the state called Virginia. You'll have to ignore her. She lacks social skills."

"I do not," I defended myself. "I just have low tolerance for-"

"Where are you from?" Marino interrupted and nearly shoved me aside. "What are you here for? Can we help?"

"Some place you haven't heard about." Lea made himself comfortable on one of the air mattresses as Marino looked at him expectantly. "And I doubt it."

"You're just going to give us vague answers, aren't you?" I asked.

Lea gave me an impish grin. "You got it!"

I rolled my eyes. "Good night, boys. I'm going to fix myself up, work on my papers, and get to bed."

"You're leaving me alone with him?" Marino jerked his thumb at Lea, a quizzical look on his face. "Did you hit your head?"

"No, but my neck is starting to burn," I frowned. I shot Lea a glare. "Don't devour my brother. If you want food, it's in the kitchen. Help yourself but clean afterwards. I'm not a maid." Although I sometimes feel like one.

"Good night!" I headed to the bathroom and immediately applied ointment to my neck, which had gone from light red to furious, chafing red. I caught my tired dark brown eyes and pale white skin in the mirror and decided I was going to skip doing my paper. I'll do it in the morning after I've had seven hours of sleep, or maybe three.

Yeah, this brunette was gonna sleep. Good night world.

I woke up at 3 AM to the sound of GIR from _Invader Zim_ singing the doom song and groaned. Lea and Marino were singing along.

I should have butchered the red lion-mane haired freak when I had the chance.

I glared at the singing duo. "It's 3 AM."

The two of them were sitting on the floor in front of the television, eating popcorn and grinning from ear to ear. Lea had a very loopy look to him as they both waved at me vigorously.

"Good morning sis!" Marino chirped. "May I say that you look lovely?"

"Heeeeeyyyy, it's the lady who hit me." Lea leaned into Marino's ear and tried to whisper, "She's not that lovely."

I shot Marino another death glare. "Well?"

"I might have given him something," Marino chuckled.

Oh God. "What the hell did you give him?"

Lea snorted and swatted Marino on the arm. "Ssshhh! Sole might hear you. Remember? We said that this was our secret."

"He was still experiencing some pain so…I might have given him some Vicodin." Marino rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

I face palmed. "You gave him Vicodin? How could you give him anything without considering the consequences? He's an alien! Who knows what our medicine will do to him!"

"Because Vicodin was the first thing I found, and give me a break. I wasn't just going to sit here and listen to him complain," Marino looked at me fishy. "Why do you have Vicodin anyway?"

Lea was checking out his shaking hands while giggling, causing me to sigh. "They're not mine. Alessia had her wisdom teeth removed last semester. She said she didn't need the Vicodin though so it's been sitting in that cabinet," I explained, rubbing my eyes. "Turn off the T.V. and go to bed."

"Wait!" Marino got up and grabbed me by the sleeve. "He's been talking about some really weird things."

I raised an eyebrow, crossing my arms. "Like?"

"Heartless? Something about different worlds," he said with a shrug. We stared at him. Lea had his eyes closed and he was humming to himself, leaning side to side. "You should use this to your advantage. He's totally drugged."

I smacked the back of his head. "You planned this!"

"What? It's not like we were getting answers when he wasn't drugged!" He held up his hands defensively.

I rolled my eyes, sighed, and sat in front of Lea. "How are you feeling?"

He opened his green eyes wide and gave me a cheesy grin. "I didn't have a heart once."

"That's not biologically possible," I said and looked at Marino. "How much Vicodin did you give him?"

Marino shrugged. "The amount didn't kill him."

"Not yet," I muttered.

"Seriously!" Lea nearly shouted, falling forward. "I didn't have a pulse!"

"That means you had no pulse, but still had a heart," I countered, pushing him up so he could sit properly. "Maybe you were a vampire."

He giggled before asking, "Did you know that I can make magic?"

I scowled, not really in the mood for magic tricks. "Yeah, sure."

"See, look!" He held out his hands and out of nowhere appeared a large, red circular metal weapon with eight silver spikes and two black handles shaped in a cross in the middle. Fire intertwined the weapon like it was its soul mate.

I yelped and began screaming, jumping from my sitting place. "ATTACK!"

"Really?" Lea looked around confused. "From who?" He held up his weapon to his eyes to scout. "I see no heartless."

Marino shoved me back into my spot and held onto me, keeping his voice calm. "That's…an interesting weapon you have there."

Lea grinned. "It's awesome! Did you know….THAT I SLEPT WITH A MOUNTAIN?"

We stared at him, perplexed. It was silent for a moment or two.

"Was it comfortable?" Marino asked.

"Never mind the mountain—what is that?" I pointed at his weapon.

"They're my chakrams," he said and then in a deeper voice. "I call them 'The Eternal Flames'."

I exhaled sharply. "Fantastic. We're all going to hell in a basket."

"Oh stop being so dramatic," Marino scowled at me.

"Did you not hear him? He said 'them', which means he has more than one of those," I snapped.

"Yeah, so?"

"I love you two," Lea announced loudly, wiggling in his spot.

"I think he's doing a butt dance," Marino whispered to me after a moment of silence. "Seriously."

I rolled my eyes and sighed. "And you wanted me to get answers from him. He's _too_ drugged up."

"You quit too early." Marino stuck his tongue at me. "So, Lea, why have you come to Earth?"

Lea proudly held up his weapon, causing me to move a few inches away. "To become a Keyblade Master!"

"A Keyblade Master?" We both asked in union.

"Aw, damn. I'm holding the wrong one," Lea pouted. "Why doesn't it come out when I want it to?"

Marino, judging by his grin, took that the wrong way with his dirty mind.

"What exactly does a Keyblade Master do?" I'm assuming world domination. What else would a blade be good for?

"To protect worlds!" Lea exclaimed. "I have to find the Keyhole first and protect it!"

"Well…I'm sure you can find a keyhole somewhere," Marino laughed.

Oh teenagers and their hormones.

I jabbed him with my elbow. "Cut that out." I gave Lea a serious look. "What will this Keyhole look like?"

Lea smiled, closed his eyes, and slowly fell backwards. He passed out on the floor and his weapon disappeared.

"Great. Just …great," I muttered. "UGH! I'm going back to sleep."

"Well, at least we know we're not on his menu," Marino said. "What if he sleep attacks?"

I glanced at him curiously. "Sleep attacks?"

"You know, like sleep walk, but sleep attack since he conjures weapons out of nowhere," Marino explained.

I huffed, a hand on my hip once I stood up. "Would you like to be buried next to your dead guinea pig?"

"Oh shut up." He tossed a pillow at me but missed.

"Terrible aim. That'll be bad news for your future lover," I teased.

He went scarlet in the face. "SOLE!"

"Good night, little brother." I headed for my room, locked the door, and crawled back into bed.

I woke up at 8 AM to the sound of someone screaming for help. I yanked my other pillow and covered my head but it didn't smother the sound out. It got worse when someone started to bang on my door. Groggily, I went to the door and swung open to find Lea with a bare chest.

He glared at me. "What the hell is taking you so long? Didn't you hear us?"

"What is your problem?" I rubbed my eyes to get the sleep out and tried to calmly run my hand through my hair to fix it.

"My problem is your little monster," Lea replied hotly. "She cut up my shirt and cloak!"

"My little monster?" I narrowed my eyes at him in confusion. Ugh. It was too early for this crap.

"Mom dropped off Fiore after inspecting your car," Marino informed me, his head poking into my room. "And Fiore hasn't stopped trying to cut his hair."

"She didn't want to come in to check on me?" I frowned.

Marino huffed. "Of course not. You know how important her job is, but she said she wanted to see you at the house later."

"You gave her scissors?" I asked, changing topic. "You know how she is with sharp objects."

"I didn't give her anything," Marino frowned, folding his arms. "This idiot thought he was good with kids and handed them over to her thinking she was normal."

"No, I said I was normally good with kids," Lea corrected him.

I chuckled and trotted to the living room, finding my eight year old baby sister sitting in the middle of the room with a huge grin on her face. Fiore had an oval shaped face with brown eyes that looked red in sun light and curly, bouncy brown hair. A few of her baby teeth were missing, giving her a slightly eerie smile. She waved the hand that held the scissors.

"Fiore," I started. "How many times have I told you not to play with scissors?"

"SOLE!" she greeted me with a happy shout. "HOW ARE YOU?"

I winced at the volume. "Good morning, Fiore, I'm fine. How are you?"

"SWEET!" Fiore jumped onto the couch and began bouncing.

"Fiore, I need you to get down from the couch please," I said, bringing out her favorite cereal and a bowl. "You can have some of this if you play nice."

"YAY!" She hopped off and the scissors dropped to the floor. She climbed onto one of the chairs and poured the cereal in until the bowl was completely full. My lactose intolerant little sister began devouring her cereal without milk but still made the slurping noises.

I looked at Marino and Lea, the two of them standing at the door way to the kitchen and keeping a safe distance from the so called demon child. Fiore was just a child who needed constant attention and had a strong appreciation for sharp objects. When I gave her my old Barbie dolls, she ripped off their heads to give them haircuts. She took Marino's old dinosaur toys and pretended to cut them up so she could cook them—it was her way of saying 'Take that dinosaurs! I'm stronger than you!'

She also enjoyed terrorizing the male population for shits and giggles.

"So…do I want to know where your shirt went?" I asked, digging through my purse. My Albuterol had to be left somewhere.

Lea disappeared and reappeared with his black shirt and cloak. I took his clothing and checked out Fiore's handiwork, noticing how she actually cut along the seams. I smirked, knowing she had done that so she wouldn't get into too much trouble.

"I can fix this," I said.

"You can?" Lea's eyebrows went up.

"Yeah but in the mean time borrow Marino's clothes. I'm sure he's left some over," I told him, nodding my head to Marino. "Go ahead. They're probably in the bottom drawer of my dresser."

Marino shot me a look. "I don't think he'll fit. He's bigger than me."

"That's what she said!" Fiore laughed at our faces.

"Let me guess, you taught her that?" I frowned at Marino.

Marino's hand went behind his head, giving me a sheepish smile. "Maybe. Do you think we can just get some of Dad's clothes? He'll probably fit those."

"Probably, but that means he'll have to go home with you guys," I said, then after thinking, "and that he'd go without a shirt all day."

"Don't pretend that you don't like what you see." Lea gave me a cocky grin.

I rolled my eyes and returned to looking for my medicine. "Whatever. Marino, see to it that he gets something while I fix his clothes."

"Aye, aye, captain!" Marino vanished into my bedroom.

"And you," I said, pointing at Lea. "Keep an eye on Fiore. Make sure she doesn't do anything stupid."

Lea changed subject, trying to get out of babysitting. "Why don't we all just leave to get your Dad's clothes, hm? I mean, Marino even said I wouldn't fit into his clothes."

"I have a better idea!" Marino shouted from my room. "Why don't we take him out for shopping?"

I stared down the hallway to my room, wondering if he had taken Vicodin himself. "Um, since when do you enjoy shopping?"

"Well it's not like you're shopping for me," he replied. "We're shopping for an alien!"

"No," I answered.

"Why not?" he whined.

"I'm not going anywhere with you three." I found my inhaler and stuffed it back into my purse, happy to know it was still in the place I left it.

"Why? Because I'm annoying and he's shady?" Marino returned with an armful of shirts.

I frowned. "You do realize we'd have Fiore with us too? And that doesn't fix the 'now' problem—Lea is still shirtless and will not get into any stores while shirtless."

"Oh right." Marino handed Lea the shirts. "Have fun trying them on."

Since Lea successfully got out of watching Fiore, I kept her from getting into the silverware and hid the knives as he tried the shirts on. Several of them cut off at his stomach and were too tight at the shoulders, making the shirts looked like they had shrunk in the drier.

Lea settled on a blue shirt with a superman symbol on it. It was still tight but at least it covered him. "As long as I don't move my arms, it shouldn't tear."

"Can we go shopping now?" Marino asked.

I shook my head. "I have class at noon."

"It's almost 9—we have time!" Marino insisted.

"No we don't. I have to shower, get ready, drive there and hopefully find a decent parking space," I argued.

"You mean I have to be stuck like this?" Lea looked like he couldn't breathe so I resisted the urge to laugh at him. "And with them?"

"Hey, it's not so bad with us," Marino pouted.

Fiore was gone from the kitchen though. "Marino…locate the missing ninja."

He sighed but went to look for her, yelping and running back into the kitchen with her chasing after him with a steam iron. "Help! Crazy child with an iron!"

"It's not even on," I pointed out.

"She can still hit me with it!"

I raised an eyebrow, wanting to explain it was too heavy for her to lift and hit him but decided to let it go instead. Sighing, I took the steam iron from her. "Fiore, this is not a toy." I gave Marino the steam iron to put back in its place. "Fiore, why don't you go play with Mr. Cuddles?"

"Mr. Cuddles?" Lea asked as Fiore nodded her pretty little head and went to her packed backpack to find Mr. Cuddles. She pulled out a black stuffed animal bat that had fangs and big red eyes. She curled up silently on the couch with Mr. Cuddles and stuck her thumb in her mouth.

"So…shopping?" Marino poked me with his finger.

"I gave you an answer," I said.

Marino wasn't giving up though. "Come on! I'll even pay for him!"

"What if I just drop you off?" I offered.

He looked at me surprisingly. "You trust me to be in the mall with an alien and a child?"

"I would hold you responsible, yes," I said, sensing the impending doom as I said the words. Our parents are going to kill me.

Lea must have sensed it as well because he opened his mouth to reject the entire idea but Marino cut him off. "Heck yeah! I can handle it!"

Lea doubted that. "Why don't you just …not go to class?"

I raised an eyebrow. "You mean skip?"

"Yeah!" And now he was hopeful, completed with a big smile.

"Nope," I said. "Education comes first."

Lea waved me off. "It'll always be there. Come on, you don't need to be there today."

"Oh, that's right. Why would we want to improve our education?" My voice was laced with sarcasm. "We should just kill each other to eliminate the competition."

"Sounds legit," Lea smirked as I glared at him.

"I'm going to class. That's not up for discussion," I snarled and retreated to my room to prepare myself for the day.

"Wait, don't _you_ have class?" I heard Lea ask Marino.

"No, we're on holiday. Universities don't have certain holidays off," Marino explained.

The drive to the mall was peaceful. Marino had checked the car first to make sure it wouldn't explode on us and decided it was safe, but that I probably needed to replace my front bumper. He reminded me that the dent on the front bumper had been there before Lea crashed onto my windshield, so technically speaking Lea had done no damage to my car.

How fortunate.

Lea was in the passenger seat, staring out the window. Marino kept Fiore busy with Mr. Cuddles. I pulled up to the entrance to the mall, stopping right in front of a pet store and glanced at Marino.

"Marino, make sure you have your eyes on her," I told him. "She will try to play hide and seek with you, she will try to run away from you, she will try to steal, and she will throw a tantrum if she doesn't get what she wants."

"I know," he said. "Stop nagging me!"

"Good luck," I said to Lea, who didn't look too happy. "I suggest that you find a new human host family. These two will drive you insane."

"I should have done that sooner," he mumbled.

"It won't be that bad!" Marino kicked the passenger seat. "I'll lead us to the right stores and you'll just have to watch Fiore!"

Lea groaned. "Why do I always get stuck with the icky jobs?"

"Just leave already," I said. "Or I'll be late for class."

I immediately began my drive to school after the trio got out of my car, only glancing at my rear window to watch them enter the mall. I shook my head, hoping nothing would go wrong but expecting the worst.

* * *

Suntiger: Hello! I wanted to explain a few things. The name theme in KH is sky, earth and ocean so I stuck with that but I used the Italian language. Sole- Sun, Marino- marine/of the sea, Fiore- flower. Also, the setting of this story is in Virginia because Pocahontas took place in Virginia. I'm just using a modern version of Virginia. I do plan on making this more family oriented since the games put a lot of focus on friendships.

Comments, questions, corrections, and concerns welcomed! Please review!

**I do not own anything but my characters and the plot. Also, this is not a self-insertion story.  
**


	2. Invasion of Darkness

**Spoilers alert for KH 3D  
**

**Chapter 2: The Invasion of Darkness**

The room felt like it was below freezing. I'm pretty sure my nose has turned red and my lips have turned blue. I understand that schools like to keep their temperatures cool in order to kill bacteria and keep their students awake, but giving them frost bite isn't necessary.

Listening to a professor rant on about students not completing their assigned homework and coming to class with a hangover is also not necessary.

I stared absentmindedly at the board as the professor's voice reached higher pitches, sounding like a broken squeaky toy meant for dogs. Typically, thirty minutes into a lecture, I expected to be on topic but today she was extremely upset since the students' behavior repeated. I closed my eyes, figuring the professor was probably on her menstrual cycle since she normally allowed these types of things slide and went about lecturing, but it might be unfair to blow off her feelings and just assume she was on the rag.

And then, to my horror, my cell phone began vibrating. The professor's head snapped in my direction and I immediately shrank into my seat, choosing to ignore the instrument responsible for ending my civil, almost friendly relationship with my professor.

"Well?" she growled, her bottom lip curling upwards but her bottom teeth stuck out like a bull dog. "Aren't you going to answer that?"

I shook my head, hoping whoever it was would take the hint and stop calling.

"But it seems so important," she continued, narrowing her beady black eyes at me menacingly. "I think the class would like to hear this conversation, wouldn't we?"

The class remained silent, waiting as I dug around my backpack to locate the offender. This is what I get for putting it on vibrate. Fishing it out, I looked at the screen to find my brother's name flashing.

"Put it on speaker," the professor ordered and I did so reluctantly.

"SOOOOOLLLLEEEEEEEE" A female screeched, causing the class to flinch. Oh, I was never going to be able to show my face here again.

A hand went to my forehead as I tried to cover my eyes and shield my face away from the class. I took a deep breath, watching my professor as she folded her arms over her white blouse and her glasses slip to the ridge of her sharp nose.

"What's going on?" I tried to sound normal.

"Give me that." I heard Marino snatch his phone. "Sorry sis, but we have a security guard escorting us out."

A few of my classmates stifled their laughs but others didn't bother to cover their snorting. Many of them nodded in understanding because they, too, had crazy relatives.

"Do I want to know why?" I asked.

"Can you pick us up?" Marino asked, wary. "We got the alien some shirts by the way, so it wasn't completely for nothing."

I nervously laughed and avoided eye contact with those around me, particularly my professor. She was drumming her fingers on her forearm with impatience. "Um, I'm still in class."

"Oh yeah!" he exclaimed. "I totally forgot! I guess Alzheimer's and Dementia are for the win? We should get tested. Can we get it young?"

I massaged my forehead in hopes of preventing a migraine, but my professor answered before I could say anything.

"You are dismissed." Her eyes were cold and sharp, and I could see her failing me in the future just to punish me. "Go tend to your family."

I cleared my throat. "I'll be there in a few." I hung up on him without waiting for his reply and gathered my belongings. I threw my backpack over my shoulders while I clutched my car keys in my right hand.

I left the classroom, ignoring the whispers and the eyes that burned into my back, and stormed to my car. I was so furious that the professor had humiliated me when I had done nothing wrong that I forgot to unlock the car door but yanked on it anyway, causing me to scream in frustration and kick the bottom of the car.

"Bad day?" Alessia, of all people, was on the other side of my car.

My housemate reminded me of a doll and sometimes I wanted to call her Snow White. She had delicate features—a small nose, soft pink lips, and pale white skin. Her wavy, shoulder length black hair shined a dark blue in the sunlight, becoming tangled as the wind played with it. Her equally dark eyes squinted at me, concerned about me but also wondering if she should take a few steps back. I wasn't one to get angry very often, but when I did she made sure to avoid me. Alessia has always believed that Fiore must have gotten her love of sharp objects from someone in our family and that someone could have been me. I just hid my fascination better.

"Professor was probably PMSing and took it out on me," I answered, clenching my fists. "My brother forgot I was in class when he called me."

"Ah, the cell phone issue," she said with understanding. "I think all professors should just tell their students that if they catch them on their cell phones or if the electronics go off in class, then they owe the class food. My professor does it, but he ends up buying the class donuts since it's HIS phone that keeps going off in class."

I decided to change topic. "How's your boyfriend?"

"He's good. In the library doing some research on neurons and whatnot." She looked bored, adjusting her red knitted sweater dress because the wind kept hiking it up and flipped her hair back. "I'm just waiting for him to get done so we can go out."

"Out?" I asked. "Isn't it early?"

"For lunch. Or Brunch," she said, shrugging. "I'm hungry."

I smiled. "Well, I'm gonna go pick up my brother. Did you need anything from the house?"

"Nah, I'll probably be in next week though. I left some of my sources there and I need them for my paper," she sighed. "So tired of papers. I can't wait until graduation!"

"You say that now," I laughed. "Wait until we start looking for jobs. We'll want to get back into school."

"That's probably true," she smiled. "Ah well, see you when I see you! Tell your family I said hi!"

She began walking to the library, causing me to smirk when she slightly stumbled over her heeled black boots. Some girls should not walk in heels. Alessia was kind, reserved, and sometimes dependent on her man. Maybe that was why she attracted a lot of guys. I wasn't going to judge. She is always there when I need her and gives me the space I need so that I could focus. I sometimes felt bad for not hanging out with her more often, but being around friends was hard when I was constantly swamped with homework, work, family drama, and now this alien thing.

_Speaking of family drama._

I got into my car, turned on the heater, raised the volume on the radio, and made my way to the mall. There was no traffic since it was during the early afternoon and most mall rats don't show up until the evening hours.

I called Marino as soon as I found a parking space. "Well, I'm here."

"I know," Marino said. "We're behind your car."

Someone knocked on my window and I glanced behind me to see Lea giving me an arrogant grin. I rolled my eyes, unlocking the doors so they could get in. "So someone explain to me what happened exactly."

"Good to see you, too!" Lea shouted. He dropped the bags of clothes onto the floor of the car, climbed into the passenger seat, but refused to put on the seat belt.

"So…we had some problems." Marino shot me an apologetic look. "My bad for calling you in class. I honestly forgot, and your professor sounds like a bitch. I didn't get you into too much trouble, did I?"

"Don't change the subject. What happened?" I stared at Fiore, who was holding onto a lollipop. "Why did you give her candy? You know Mom doesn't like it when we give her sugar."

"We didn't," Lea smirked. "The guard did. Your sister said she was hungry enough to drop her morals and eat a human being."

I shook my head, knowing Fiore's vocabulary hadn't developed that much yet. "She didn't say that."

Lea cackled. "No, but she might as well have."

"She bit the security guard," Marino said. "She told him to get her a lollipop and when he said she could get it herself…she bit him."

I probably should have scolded her for biting someone but I was laughing. And here I thought Lea had gotten himself into a pickle when someone pissed him off and he decided it was high time he had given someone a piece of his mind by showing his weapons.

Nope. Leave it to children to pester society.

Fiore flashed me a big smile as she ate her lollipop.

"Is Mom home yet?" I started up the car. "Or should I take you guys back to my place?"

"Do you feel like explaining him to Mom?" Marino gestured to Lea.

"Don't talk about me like I'm not here," Lea frowned. "I'm sure I can handle parents."

"Obviously has never met ours," Marino muttered under his breath.

I gave him a sardonic smile. So the red head thinks he can take on our parents, eh? Well, why not. It should be fun regardless of all the questions it would raise. "I'll take you guys home then. Lea, you can leave your bags in the car while I stop in and say hi to Mom. She'll probably want to talk."

"Fine with me." He responded with a careless shrug.

I didn't bother hiding my smirk. I'm pretty sure if there was a level of hell for those who laugh at the misfortune of others, I'd rule over it. Fiore decided to be the DJ during the car ride to Mom's house so the boys were subjected to Barbie girl by Aqua repeatedly since that was the only song she wanted to listen to. Marino had the sense to pretend he was sleeping but Lea looked ready to slam his head against the roof of the car to knock himself out.

My parents owned a four bedroom house with red tiled roofs, small columns that led to the front door, two garages, and tall thin windows that allowed a peek inside since the curtains were never closed. Mom always preferred natural sunlight. A large swimming pool and hot tub was behind the house, where my parents retreated to when they wanted to escape the world.

It was cool having parents that worked for the government, but we barely got to see them. Marino and I were raised by our grandparents since our parents didn't want us to grow up in a stranger's house, but our parents became the strangers. They were trying to fix that now since our grandparents passed away two years ago and Fiore needed role models. However, she still spent more time with Marino who babysat her and with me.

"Nice place," Lea said. "Spacious."

"Yeah." I parked the car. "Wait until you see inside."

"Home sweet home!" Marino took off immediately. "Race you, Fiore!"

And there was Mom at the front door with arms crossed over her chest. Her curly, chestnut brown hair was cut short so it looked like an Afro. The freckles on her face reminded me of the times I used to try to play connect the dots. Fiore was a mini image of Mom, but Marino and I look like Dad. We both had a darker shade of brown hair and no freckles. Marino has Dad's hazel eyes. I have Mom's eyes; brown but red when the sun's light greets them.

"Aren't you home early?" Mom asked me as I came up with Lea behind me. She pulled her purple scarf a little more tightly to keep warm. I was tempted to ask why she was only wearing a blue shirt and black skinny jeans, but I knew it would have made her feel uncomfortable. She enjoyed dressing like a teenager; as if it would roll back time and she'd be young again before her career drained her of her youth.

"Yeah, class was dismissed early," I lied.

"Who's that?" Mom looked over at Lea. "He's new. Are you dating?"

Of course she would assume that every guy who was in my vicinity was my boyfriend.

"He's nobody," I answered.

"Well, once upon a time." Lea was amused, adding a wink. "I think she wants to."

"Don't count on it," I said as he pretended to look hurt. "I hit him with my car. Unfortunately I didn't kill him."

Mom laughed. "Don't say things like that." She looked down at Fiore and immediately removed the lollipop from her mouth. "Sole! I told you no sugar for her!"

"Not my fault," I defended myself. "Marino, why don't you explain?"

"She bit the security guard, so he gave her a lollipop," Marino shouted, heading upstairs to his room.

Mom huffed, a concerned expression on her face. "Honestly, what are we going to do with him?"

"With him?" Lea asked. "Don't you mean with her?"

She shook her head. "I believe Fiore will defend herself when she gets older. She's so harsh with men that she might even intimidate them, but Marino!" She gave me a desperate look. "What are we going to do with your brother? What if he ends up with a bitch? I mean he lets Fiore walk all over him."

That earned a good, loud laugh from Lea.

I ignored him. "I'll take care of it."

She shot me a look. "Mafia style, right? Make it look like an accident."

I smiled. "No worries, Mom. It'll be over my dead, zombie body before I let him date someone who didn't appreciate him, and by then I'll just be devouring her pretty head."

"That's good to hear," she smiled back. "Now what about you and this man? What did you say your name was?"

"My name is Lea," he introduced himself. I just noticed that he was wearing a new fitted black shirt that defined his torso. I rolled my eyes, now realizing why Mom was so curious.

"She didn't hurt you that bad, did she? Doesn't seem like you have any broken bones," she said in wonder, checking him out.

"No," he said with a grin. "Nothing can beat me. I'm hard as a rock."

Point two for the alien. I thought he'd feel disturbed to find an older woman ogling him but his arrogant ass was just fine. I wasn't expecting him to be flirtatious with her. Then again, this could just be his personality. Maybe he was a cocky person in general.

Mom giggled and I had to walk away before I threw up in my mouth. My parents were loyal in their relationship but that didn't stop them from flirting with others or checking people out. I just wished they wouldn't do so with people my age. I've always felt awkward, and it was why I never brought friends home. I lingered in the kitchen as Lea acquainted himself with Mom until Marino called him upstairs- probably to check out his game systems.

Mom cornered me in the kitchen. "He seems nice," she said, pouring herself a cup of orange juice.

"Not my type," I said.

She smirked. "Well, that's probably smart."

I raised an eyebrow, debating if I should ask, but she continued anyway.

"It's kind of like sex, you know? The best way to protect yourself from STDS or prevent pregnancy is by not having sex. Same thing with avoiding potentially crazy, possessive boyfriends. Sometimes it's about limiting the number of guy friends," she explained.

"That has got to be the lamest thing I've ever heard," I rolled my eyes, a grin on my face. "What makes you think he's crazy anyway?"

"You hit him with your car and he hasn't reported you for reckless driving? Or returned home?" She gave me a pointed look. "You allowed him to stay at your place?"

Aw damn.

"Marino suggested it," I said, knowing I was throwing him under a bus, but it was true at least. I had wanted to take the alien to a hospital.

"Did he now? Hmm." She narrowed her eyes. "Guess I do have to talk to him about the birds and the bees."

"No, I don't think that's necessary," I told her. "Aren't you more worried that Marino didn't suggest taking him to a hospital?"

"Your friend said he was fine." She sipped her juice.

"And you believed him? He got hit by a car," I stressed.

I wonder how the government goes about hiring people these days. If they hired people like my parents, oh boy. I must be missing something, or they're all missing something in their minds.

Or the alien could be messing with our minds.

Perhaps he was behaving this way because he was manipulating us to think he was harmless. An arrogant, flirtatious son of a bitch, but harmless enough that I would allow him to stay at my place, get some new clothes to blend in with the crowd, and near my family. He probably doesn't remember that he had showed off his weapon and told us that he was looking for a keyhole.

Something tells me I should find this keyhole before he does.

I narrowed my eyes at him as soon as he appeared in the kitchen with Marino.

_I am so onto you now! You can't fool me!_

"I'm home!" Dad announced as he entered the house, slamming the door behind him. "And it snowed!"

Fiore heard him from the kitchen, squealed, and raced to greet him. Dad is the only male she doesn't attempt to pester. Marino thinks it's because she's in love with him- something about the other version of Oedipus complex.

"It's snowing now?" Marino looked outside the window with excitement.

"No, it snowed where I worked. The drive back home was a mess." Dad trekked in some of the snow as he joined us in the kitchen, balancing Fiore in his right arm and his tattered briefcase in his left. He should really get a new briefcase but it belonged to Grandpa and he refused to let go of it. "All the accidents…people don't know how to drive!"

Dad's cheeks were rosy, his brown scarf was wrapped around his head so many times I couldn't see his neck or ears. His brown trench coat was slightly wet from the snow melting and the bottom half of his work pants reeked of something horrible.

"Did you step in something?" Mom asked, looking at his pants.

"Oh, the neighbor's dog," he answered, almost jolly. "He was so excited to see me that he peed on my pants."

"Oh God, go upstairs and change!" Mom ordered, disgusted. Dad turned around to head upstairs. "No! Take the shoes off!"

She followed him upstairs, Fiore still in his arms, and Marino informing him of his adventures at the mall.

Lea smirked and leaned against the counter, his arms folded over his chest and he looked at me curiously. "Nice family."

I stared at him. "Indeed."

"You don't seem to close to your parents," he said.

It was my turn to fold my arms. "Is that a question or are you implying something?"

"No, I'm just curious. They seem friendly and you seem distant."

I frowned. He was analyzing my family. "Let me guess, part of your mission is to observe human relations and report to headquarters with your findings?"

His smirk widened. "You're still weird."

"You're still annoying."

He beamed with amusement, taking pleasure in irking me.

"So, you must be Lea." Dad returned wearing grey sweatpants and his old college football t-shirt. "You look strong. You can take care of my little girl."

The urge to vomit was back.

I glanced at Lea's smug and amused face and scowled. "I can take care of myself, thanks."

"I know you can, sweetheart, but it's nice to know you've found a man. I mean who knows what could-" Dad continued but I stopped listening.

"I have to leave," I interrupted. "I have classes tomorrow."

"But it's gonna be snowing soon." Mom rejoined us. "You can stay here for the night and drive to school tomorrow. You've already had one accident."

I glared at Lea and muttered under my breath. "Yeah, I wonder whose fault that is."

"If they leave, can I go with?" Marino asked Mom, but he was looking at me for the permission. "I'll be bored here."

"You have Fiore to keep you company," Mom pouted. "I can't let both of my kids go. It's gonna snow!"

"Mom, it'll snow in about maybe four hours," I said, not truly sure of when it would but I wasn't going to stick around to find out. "And the drive back to my place doesn't take that long."

Mom shook her head stubbornly and was about to say something but Dad intercepted her. "Honey, I think they may just want to be alone." He nudged and winked at her.

Lea busted out laughing and didn't even bother to try to hide his mirth when I glowered at him. My face became red with embarrassment and anger.

"It's not like that!" I shouted.

Marino came down with his bag with an understanding smile on his face. "You know how they are, Sole. You keep denying it, the more they'll think something's going on."

"Ugh! I'm leaving now. See you when I see you." I began stomping to the front door. To think that I believed Lea would have a hard time dealing with them! Maybe I should just tell them he's an alien and leave him to them! After all, they are government officials! Yet another reason I wanted nothing to do with them!

"Sole, we're just kidding!" Mom came after me. She grabbed my forearm and drew me back. "At least stay until dinner."

"It'll be dark by the time you finish making dinner," I said. "And the roads will be harder to drive on with the snow."

Lea decided to come to my rescue or maybe he just recalled the last time I drove on icy roads. "I think it's best that we leave now." He gave Mom a charming smile. "Wouldn't want her driving in that."

Mom released me, responding with an enchanted smile herself. I could tell by the way her eyes almost sparkled at him that she was enthralled. Maybe he could glamor people. "I suppose so."

"Take care now!" Dad shouted from the kitchen, waving me goodbye.

Lea led me out of the house, closing the door behind him. "Well, that was fun. See, told you I can handle parents!"

"Whatever," I mumbled, getting out my car keys and unlocking the car.

"You don't trust me, do you?" he grinned, climbing into the passenger seat.

"What gave you that impression?" I rolled my eyes, pulling the car out of the drive way and onto the main road. I reached over to turn on the radio when I saw someone's hair in the back seat. "What the-"

"Has anyone ever told you that you need to clean the back of your car?" Marino's head popped into full view, causing me to shriek. "Damn, what's your problem?"

"When did you get into my car?" I snapped as Lea roared with laughter, holding onto his sides. "You nearly gave me a heart attack!"

"The car was unlocked before you unlocked it," Marino smirked. "Not a good habit, by the way. Someone could have stolen it."

"I'll give you stolen it," I growled, wanting to pull over to kick his ass. "Wait until I get to my place."

"She's so sensitive," Lea joked, looking at Marino. "Am I right?"

I glowered at him, but the rest of the drive home was silent, peaceful and without snow. I ignored the duo as I parked the car and retreated into my space, not wanting to deal with either one of them.

"We're gonna watch T.V!" Marino declared. "You wanna join?"

"No," I answered, closing the door to my bedroom.

My bedroom window was opened, allowing the winter smell of fresh pine trees to flow freely. Pieces of my calendar to remind me of my "To do" list gently fluttered as a light breeze went through my room. Books of human physiology, marine biology, animal biology, genetics and behavior stacked upon each other on the floor and on top of the scattered papers, forcing me to tip toe around so I wouldn't damage anything.

I really needed to organize my room.

I had papers to do that I had to turn in first thing tomorrow, things to research, and a cloak to fix…a cloak to fix. I paused as I brought out the cut up black cloak and smiled. Grandma taught me how to sow clothes when I was younger. She used to work at a factory when she was in her twenties until she married into a wealthy family, but she truly loved Grandpa.

They were real soul mates.

I focused my attention on where Fiore had tortured the cloak with scissors and decided to fix it since it was a mindless thing to do before I started on homework. I was finished with his cloak two or three hours later and began my research for the paper on the nervous system. Hopefully the professor wouldn't be as crabby as the one I had today. I had to take mini breaks for when I felt overwhelmed and wanted to kill some brain cells by thumping my head against the wall in frustration.

Marino stuck his head into my room around 7 PM. "Hey, I just finished cooking dinner. Do you want some?"

I smiled tiredly, thankful for the break. "Yeah, thanks. I'll be right there."

"Whatcha working on?" he asked, eying the multitude of papers that were threatening to bury me alive.

I sighed, running a hand through my hair. "It's basically the introduction to neuroscience."

Marino frowned. "Well, that sounds like loads of fun."

"Totally," I chuckled. "What's he doing?"

"He's actually not here," Marino said. "He wanted to walk around."

I became tense. "And you just let him go?"

"Didn't seem right to keep someone cooped up in here," he said. "He looks human enough so we don't have to be concerned about any kidnapping. We shouldn't have to jail him."

I groaned, hoping that Lea hadn't done something stupid to gather attention. "I'm too old for this."

Marino's eyebrows furrowed. "You're twenty-one."

"Too old," I stated. "And hungry. What did you make?"

"Go check it out." Marino playfully stuck out his tongue.

I left my room with my little brother trailing after me, finding the dining room table set for two, completed with candles, a salad, and dishes of spaghetti and meatballs. It was his favorite.

"Aww," I said with a grin. "Just like Grandpa taught you."

"I was raised to be a gentleman," Marino grinned back, proud of himself.

We had a moment of silence as we seated ourselves and I poured myself a glass of water in a wine glass. I had a reputation to uphold and I didn't want to encourage my siblings to become alcoholics, but wine glasses always made me feel classy.

Marino handed me bread. "They're briefs, by the way."

"I don't need to know what you wear." I rolled my eyes.

He laughed. "Not mine. Lea's. I was teaching him how to do his own laundry."

I nearly choked. "And you wanted me to know because?"

He laughed, radiating with delight. "I wanted to see your reaction. You didn't disappoint. Look at you blush!"

I flung a meatball at him. "Shut up!"

"Are we seriously going to have a food fight?" Marino ducked his head.

We spent two hours cleaning afterwards but I didn't mind. I needed a break. Lea strolled back into the house around 10 PM. I watched him suspiciously as Marino told him where the leftovers were. Lea looked normal. Well, his normal. I still couldn't understand how his hair spiked like that without any gel. I didn't want to question where he had been. I figured he went out looking for the keyhole anyway. I would have started my search on it but I had papers to do. Maybe this was something I should assign to Marino.

The alien said nothing to me that night until I handed him his cloak.

"I fixed it," I stated.

He smiled but it didn't quite reach his eyes. "Thanks."

I waited and watched. Something was off. I've only spent two days with him, but I was already accustomed to his annoying, cocky, typically in my face with perverted comments self. This quiet side bugged me. It made me feel like he was up to something.

Like he was plotting.

I frowned, knowing I wasn't going to get anything out of him for now. He was already being secretive and seemed guarded. Whatever. I'll figure him out sooner or later. I returned to my papers for the night and was lights out around 4 AM.

Class was boring. The male professor had one of those droning voices that could easily put me to sleep, hence why so many of the students in the classroom were on their laptops checking out their social media or playing games. College life, right? I should have had some coffee this morning.

"Ugh." I rested my head on the desk. A few minutes later I was happy that at least it was dark in the class but I sensed a stirring.

"Hey, what's going on?" one of the students asked.

"Yeah, it got so dark suddenly."

I looked up, realizing they weren't kidding. It was almost pitch black in the classroom, which was odd considering the sun was just shining in. I glanced outside the window to find the clouds black with linings of violet. A sharp screech of pain caught my attention, forcing me to look down to the first floor. A student was being attacked by something black.

"Get away from the windows!" Someone yelled frantically but it was too late.

The windows were shattered, the students screamed and ran for it. I saw a few of them get tackled to the floor and were mauled by these faceless creatures. I didn't stay to actually get a good view of what they looked like. I grabbed my backpack and ran like hell to the exit in the staircases, colliding into Alessia as I did so.

"Alessia?" I asked breathlessly as I laid one hand on the wall to balance myself.

"I don't know where to go," she cried, visibly shaken. "They're all outside and they're breaking in."

"The basement?" Fear had a tight grip on my heart and I could hear it pounding in my ears. I was going to kill Lea. What the hell did he do? Phone home like E.T.?

"And be trapped there?" she wailed.

Oh hell. I have got to get home! What if they were attacking Marino?

"I have to get to my car," I said, knowing it was probably suicidal. I had to try though. "Marino needs me."

She shook her head at first, but then nodded. "Okay."

I took her hand and held it tightly, jerking her forward with me as we ran outside and into the parking lot. We managed to dodge a few, painfully thankful and yet feeling horribly guilty as the black monsters targeted other students instead of us. We were almost there when one stopped right in front of us and I finally came eye to eye with it.

This black monster had a humanoid, muscular body with circular glowing yellow eyes and long antennae on its head that fell to its back. The hands were large and clawed. I could see faint blue linings on it, like a vein pulsing through its body. This creature had no scent, but I could feel the emotions of rage and despair oozing off of it.

I gulped and stood frozen. There was no way I could fight this thing and survive.

It charged at us. Alessia screamed and released my hand, but running away appeared to attract its attention because it knocked me over without a thought and tackled her down. She was still screaming as it ripped out her heart but then her body went still and her eyes became glossy. It turned around and fixated its attention on me.

I couldn't breathe, much less move. My asthma decided to kick in once panic seized my lungs.

"Get out of the way!" I heard someone shout and I was lifted up in seconds. A flash of red hair brushed against my cheek and I was dropped on the ground. "What are you doing, just sitting there? Are you trying to get yourself killed?"

I stared at Lea in shock until I was suddenly engulfed with fury. I slapped him with all the force I could, screaming, "This is your entire fault! You brought them here, didn't you?"

The slap made him back away but before he could respond to me, the creature lunged for him. He blocked the creature with his sword-like weapon, which I guessed to be the keyblade. The handle of the blade resembled his chakrams, but the blade itself looked like a curving flame.

"Sole! SOLE!" Marino's voice made my head snap in his direction. He was in my car. "Come on, Lea said we had to go some place safe!"

I wanted to cry. He was okay! I forced my legs to cooperate with me, nearly stumbling over my feet as I reached the car. "How did you get in?"

"You forgot to lock it," he said. "Now hurry up. We have to get to Mom and Dad."

"And Fiore," I stated, pushing the lifeless image of Alessia out of my mind. "What about Lea? Where's he going?"

"To find the keyhole. He's really mad that he didn't find it earlier," Marino explained. "He said that the Heartless were attracted to it and would eat it or something like that. He'll be fine."

It didn't make sense. None of it did. So without thinking, I turned on the car, didn't bother to dodge the creatures as they threw themselves at us, completely disregarded the speed limit and raced to the house.

We didn't make it though.

Lea crashed on top of the hood of the car and held on by the windshield wiper, causing Marino and I to scream. I took my foot off the pedal, not wanting to repeat the same mistake and lose control of the car. The car slowed and Lea jumped to the side. He was too engaged with the creatures to notice that I didn't stop the car. In fact, I had shifted it to where I could run him over before Marino started yelling at me.

"What the hell is wrong with you? He's on our side!"

"He brought them here!" I yelled back. "This is all his fault!"

"No, it's not!" Marino grabbed hold of the wheel and roughly jerked it at the last minute, missing Lea by a few inches.

We both screamed hysterically as the car went off the road, taking out a few of the creatures as we went down, and ended up crashing against a tree.

I must have blacked out for a couple of minutes because I couldn't remember when the airbag came out. I heard a buzzing sound that slowly cleared out and recognized Marino's voice begging me to be alive. Marino had a bleeding cut on his forehead and a bruise forming right underneath his chin. His hazel eyes were wide with fear.

"Stop freaking out. I'm fine," I said groggily.

"Remind me to give her a potion later," Lea told Marino.

I frowned. When did he get here?

Lea looked harassed. His hair had twigs mangled in it, his face was covered in some dirt, and his green eyes were furious. He probably knew I was set on hitting him with my car, but he picked me up bridal style anyway.

"The car is useless now," Marino said.

"I know. We have to find the keyhole. It has to be around here somewhere because there are more Heartless," Lea stated.

"What does a keyhole look like?" Marino asked, uncertain.

Lea handed me over to Marino to pull out his keyblade. "Like a normal keyhole. It just won't be in the usual place. It won't always be a door."

I was drifting in and out of consciousness at this point. I was being carried sometimes. Other times I was barely walking with my arm wrapped around Marino's neck. The trek to find this keyhole felt like hours.

"There it is!" Lea hissed under his breath.

I opened my eyes to see a swarm of the black creatures surrounding a willow tree that stood next to the river. The tree looked ancient, its trunk sturdy, and I could have sworn I saw a gentle face carved into it.

Sure enough, a black keyhole was at its base. The creatures were climbing over each other and clawing their way through to enter it.

"Damn!" Lea growled. "There's too many of them." Then he looked at us.

"What?" I managed to ask but I think I croaked.

"I have to get you out of here." He clutched his cloak tightly around him and waved a hand to open what I believed was a portal. "I have to teleport you. I have to at least get you guys out of danger."

"Oh hell no," I argued, taking steps away from him. "I still have to get to Fiore and Mom and Dad."

"We can't just leave them here," Marino agreed with me but that's the last thing I remember.

Something hard slammed the back of my head and I tasted dirt before blacking out.

* * *

Suntiger: Ta da! And so the adventure starts. I want to try to update this weekly but if that doesn't happen...well, blame it on life lol. Circumstances do occur.

Thank you so much Destinys Heart for your feedback! I appreciate it! I've been wondering if I've kept Lea in character.


	3. The Raging Sun

**Chapter 3: The Raging Sun**

I think I'm floating in outer space. There was no up or down, no sound or smell. Nothing but empty, black space.

_The door is still closed, are you ready to open it?_

A soft, feminine voice seemed to hover around me.

"Who's there?" I took a step forward into the abyss and suddenly felt like I was floating down. Below me, a circular platform appeared. It was silver, outlined with golden suns, and a green willow tree in the background. Inside the inner red emblems were images of Marino, Fiore, and my grandparents.

_Darkness can only be driven out by the light. Be that light._

I landed softly onto the platform. I looked around, wondering what was going on, when I heard a warping sound and three objects appeared in their own stations. One item in the middle was a sword with a simple gold pommel and blue handle. A black symbol was on its hilt but I couldn't make it out from my distance. The item on my left looked like a wand. The handle was green with a blue, circular head on top of the staff. The item on my right was a shield. It was pentagonal in shape with red edges and black face. Three red circles gathered together in the middle of the shield, two of the three were smaller and on top of the bigger circle.

Curiosity and the urge to investigate compelled me to approach the three items. I went up to the sword first since it was right in front of me. The station began to glow as if rays of sunlight shined down.

_The path of the warrior. Invincible courage. A sword of terrible destruction._

I backed away from it, causing the light to go out. I had no warrior blood in me. I had seen enough wars through my grandfather's eyes when his mind stopped and drifted into the past—when his flash backs and post traumatic stress disorder made him unbearable to be around, but I had refused to walk away from him.

No, the sword was not for me.

_Is this what you give up?_

I didn't answer. I ignored the voice in my head and walked up to the wand and the wand lit up like the sword did.

_The path of the mystic. Inner strength. A staff of wonder and ruin. _

I bit my lip, tilting my head to the side. Sure, I was curious. Yes, I had inner strength but I didn't need a wand to tell me that. It was the ruin part that was eating me. I wanted no part of ruining something, so I released the wand and the light vanished. The voice didn't ask me if I wanted to give that up.

I walked up to the shield. As if on cue, rays of light shined down.

_The path of the guardian. Kindness to aid all friends. A shield to repel all. _

My heart fluttered nervously but this one felt right. I felt more at home with the shield. I gripped the shield closer to me and the other two items disappeared.

The platform I stood on swiftly blackened. The air that felt neutral was suddenly biting cold. I glanced up to see that I was surrounded by the black monsters that attacked my university.

I yelped and rolled on the floor to dodge one of them as it lunged at me. I held up the shield as two others clawed at me, forcing myself to stand and push them off. I noticed that these were shorter, reaching maybe up to my stomach, and they kind of wiggled when they walked. Growling with frustration, I whacked the few that rushed towards me and continued to knock them over until they all disappeared.

A warm light materialized a few inches away, revealing a Native American woman with black long hair. She was taller than me, slightly muscular and slender. She kindly smiled and her warm dark eyes welcomed me.

"What are you afraid of?" she asked gently, her hand reached out to me with her palm facing upward.

I stood guarded with the shield up to cover my chest. What was I afraid of? There were too many things to list.

Her stance never changed. "What is most important to you?"

My mind immediately went to my siblings. I had to find them.

I stared at her. "What are you getting at?"

My question went unanswered but she asked one more question before she slowly vanished. "How do you want to be remembered?"

The floor beneath me became like quick sand, but black and violet. I began sinking in, being swallowed up by this darkness. The more I struggled, shoving the shield against the darkness but passing right through it, the faster I descended into the darkness.

_You will have to be strong to walk through the darkness. Do not be afraid. It is in the dark that you will shine your brightest. _

I stopped thrashing about to listen, believing it to be the Native American woman who was talking to me. That didn't keep me from snarling at the sinking black void. I told myself I wasn't going to give up. That no matter where I was, in this cold world of darkness, I was going to shine. I was going to exceed all limitations.

Whatever it took to get back to Marino and Fiore.

I let myself be swallowed up by the darkness but woke up to the smell of dirty streets. I was sore, frozen, and limp. The sky above me was dark and the stars could be easily seen. I cracked my neck, heard it pop and massaged it.

_How did I get here? _

I checked for injuries, finding a few bruises and scratches but nothing was broken. Everything ached though. I didn't want to move at first so I glanced around, taking in my surroundings and frowned. I didn't recognize anything as I spotted foreign buildings with sloped roofs and street lamps. It reminded me of the Victorian houses I used to see while visiting historical sites in the older parts of Virginia and when I ventured out in Europe during my study abroad program with the university.

Okay. Don't panic yet.

_Ugh. Might as well walk around and see who's about. _

I stretched my legs and popped my back.

"Damn, I am getting so old!" I groaned, pushing myself to stand.

I slowly walked around so I wouldn't alarm anyone or anything to my presence, and peeked into shops but discovered most places to be vacant until I came across a group of three people who were wandering the streets. I frowned, wondering if they were going to be helpful or hostile. The group consisted of a man and two women. The man had long brown hair and a scar that ran diagonally on his face. He was tall and muscular in stature. The vibe coming from him said to leave him alone or approach with much caution, like walking up to a potential dangerous animal.

That was fine with me. I was not willing to deal with a lethal man in an outfit that screamed 'You won't survive me'.

What? How else would you explain all the black and zippers and belts and the gun thing he was carrying?

No thank you. I like living.

I had a better view of the woman standing behind him. She wore her brown hair in a braid and her bangs framed her apprehensive face. Her arms were folded over her chest and her green eyes were narrowed and scanning the area. She appeared to be really girly with her pink and white top that tied around her neck and a pale pink skirt underneath. The light brown boots she wore made her footsteps a bit heavier so I could hear them.

The other girl had short black hair and she wore less than the other two. She had dark shorts, black knee high socks underneath laced up boots, a black sleeveless vest and a dark sleeveless top with floral designs that exposed her midriff. My ears winced at the volume of her voice. She was loud. I mean, nonstop talking loud. I was about to walk in the opposite direction when I noticed that the loud one was holding my backpack, causing my eyes to bulge.

_How did she get that?_

I sighed, knowing I couldn't let her keep it and began to slowly walk up to them. "Hey, excuse me," I said, keeping my eyes on the man with the gun and hoped I wasn't about to be killed.

"There you are!" The loud one stopped mid-sentence and pointed at me. "We've been looking all over for you!"

I paused. "You have?"

_That doesn't bode well. _

"Yeah, isn't this yours?" the girl asked, holding up my backpack.

I raised an eyebrow. "How do you know it's mine?"

"We do now," the man said.

Alarmed, I started to take a step back.

The other girl smiled. "It's okay. We found some of your cards."

She waved my driver's license in the air. My ID picture showed that I hadn't changed much. My heart shaped face was still framed by my layered, shoulder length, dark brown hair. A few of my bangs covered my brown eyes, and I stood at an average height. I wasn't athletic, but I was still thin due to stress, anxiety, and my bad habit of forgetting to feed myself when I was buried in homework and research. I tend to lose track of time and give up on food just so I can get a few hours of sleep. I've always crashed after papers are turned in.

I didn't feel reassured. "What are you doing with my stuff?"

"I found it!" the loud one was also perky.

"How…convenient," I mumbled, unconvinced. The last time I saw my backpack it was in the back seat of my car.

"My name is Yuffie," she introduced herself as she handed me my bag and grinned at me. "What's your name?"

I ignored her question as I went through my bag to make sure my medication was there. I rummaged through my books, papers, thin folders and found it.

Albuterol, check. Okay, I'm good to go.

"She asked for your name," the man said with impatience, giving me a pointed glare.

Right. Where are my manners? "Sole."

Yuffie stared at me curiously. "Soulay?"

"Soul-leh," I corrected. I have a feeling I'm going to be doing that a lot.

"Well Sole, my name is Aerith and this is Leon," the other girl said, her eyes never leaving me. "Are you doing okay?"

"Yeah, we came back to Traverse Town when it reappeared. Thought something weird was going on and decided to check it out!" Yuffie exclaimed.

"Traverse Town?" I trailed off, attempting to think of where on Earth I could be. I wasn't that geographically challenged, but then it hit me. "Reappeared? As in, it disappeared before?"

Leon sighed and Aerith said, "It's a long story."

"You should come with us," Yuffie suggested. "You can stay with us. We have plenty of room!"

Aerith smiled along but I wondered if she felt peeved for not being asked first. Leon seemed indifferent.

"But I just met you three," I said, resisted the urge to add 'And you could be psychopaths' as to not press my luck.

Yuffie didn't seem to catch on. "You wouldn't be a bother if that's what you're worried about!"

"It'll be fine," Aerith agreed. "Leon will explain what happened to your world as we go."

Oh boy. "Uh huh…"

I stood there wondering what options I had. I could play along and go with them, or I could stay here and wander around, and most likely be tailed by these three.

Leon sighed again, probably thinking I'll need a lot of convincing and would take forever to decide. Hm, well, let's not piss off the man who appeared bored yet ready to kill something.

"Sure," I said slowly, looking from one to another. I needed time to think of a better plan anyway. "I'll come along."

After exchanging smiles that made me feel extremely paranoid, the trio led me through the streets to something I didn't have words to describe. A man with a toothpick in his mouth walked out of it.

"It's about damn time," he growled. "It's been hours."

I stopped in my tracks. "What is that? Who is that?"

"It's a gummi ship," Yuffie replied. "And that's our pilot."

"I'm Cid, that's who I am," he answered, scratching at the whiskers on his chin. "Guess you're stuck with us now that your world's been destroyed."

My voice squeaked. "Wait! My world has been destroyed?"

The creepy feeling of doom began to suffocate me. It was a combination of being claustrophobic and the shock that came from the news.

Without even checking with me first, Leon picked me up and threw me over his shoulder. "Let's go."

I started kicking, waving my arms around, and screaming hysterically in protest.

"Somebody tell me we have somethin' to shut her up." Cid was making his way back to his seat. "Because I ain't listening to that."

Yuffie was the first to go through my bag and take out my Albuterol. "Do you think she needs this?"

"Couldn't hurt to try." Cid flipped some switches on.

Yuffie passed me my Albuterol. I placed the inhaler in my mouth and pushed at the top, slowly inhaling the medicine. My breaths began to come in slow and all of the sudden it felt as if someone had dropped a heavy weight in the middle of my chest and I couldn't support it. I trembled, feeling my skin become prickly. My body was hot and cold at the same time.

"Hey, she's turning red." Yuffie pointed out to my skin.

I glanced down to see my arms and shoulders breaking out with hives. My vision blurred and narrowed. Knowing that tunnel vision was often times associated with a panic attack, I stuck my head in between my legs and rocked myself back and forth.

"Give her some space," Leon ordered and everyone backed away.

It didn't matter. I passed out anyway.

I was completely disoriented when I came to. My body was stiff and strapped to a white chair. The other four people in the ship seemed to not notice that I was awake. Yuffie was idly chatting with Aerith, Leon was silent and had his eyes closed, and Cid was whistling an unknown tune. My head felt heavier than the rest of me so I rolled it back and stared at the ceiling.

_I knew this was a bad idea. Now I've been kidnapped. _

I mentally cursed myself for getting myself in this situation. My mind was still too foggy and I knew better than to invent an escape plan while I was in this state. My best bet was to wait it out and hope I wasn't being sacrificed to some pagan god. What did Grandma used to say? That at least in the jungle you can tell who's the lion and who's the sheep? Except sheep aren't found in the jungle, and these people were definitely not sheep. I was surrounded by lions.

"We're here," Yuffie announced as we landed smoothly. "Welcome to Radiant Garden!"

"You're awake," Leon stated upon realizing I was awake and staring at the ceiling. "You okay?"

I nodded my head, not trusting my voice. Leon unstrapped me and helped me stand. I found myself unable to support myself so I leaned on him. Leon led me out of the gummi ship, slowly stooping down to let me rest on the grass.

"Radiant Garden, huh?" I stared at the scenery.

The place had an old feeling to it, like it had once been majestic and full of splendor. I stared at a castle that looked like it was being invaded by a factory. The outside of the castle, where I was sitting, was partly destroyed. There were patches of grass and trees, water fountains, and what looked like a market with small shops. The stone walls were crumbling, reminding me of the Roman ruins.

"There's been a war," I muttered to myself.

"It's okay!" Yuffie exclaimed. "We're restoring our home to its former glory!"

I twitched, not wanting to show my sadness since this destruction used to be her home, and a lot of people typically get annoyed when people show pity or sympathy.

"Come on." Leon heaved me up, but at this point I was able to walk on my own so I strolled behind them.

I figured if I kept my distance I would be able to slip away quietly. We passed through an area that had small shops. The roofs of these shops didn't seem to be held all that together, making me wonder if they had just been replaced. I was waiting for the right moment to disappear when I spotted a familiar person.

I never quite understood the expression 'seeing red' until that moment. My nostrils flared, my eyes narrowed, my fists clenched themselves, and it was as if I was fuming by the ears. I must have looked like a bull ready to charge because the people walking around me glanced at me nervously and cleared a path.

"YOU!" I shouted with intense ferocity, causing my companions to jump in alarm.

Lea's head spun to face me and his eyes widened. "Uh oh."

I stormed up to him. He didn't have enough time to escape so he stood there, surprised, and didn't dodge my slap.

Fire radiated from him as he yelled, throwing his hands in the air. "WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM?"

I stood my ground, making myself stand taller. "MY PROBLEM? YOU WANT TO KNOW MY PROBLEM? YOU ARE! YOU ARE MY PROBLEM!"

"OH, I'M THE PROBLEM? YOU JUST SLAPPED ME BUT I'M THE PROBLEM?"

"ARE YOU SERIOUS? YOU PUT MY FAMILY IN DANGER! YOU DESTROYED MY WORLD! MY HOME! THEY'RE ALL GONE!"

Lea glared but lowered his voice. "I did not destroy your world."

"You tell that to the people who lost their lives," I snapped.

"I did not destroy your world!" he argued.

I heard a clapping sound, causing my head to turn in its direction and caught myself staring at Marino.

"Wow, you guys fight like a married couple," Marino scowled, his arms folded over his chest defensively.

"Marino?" I choked.

"The one and only," he said, handing Lea a bag. "I got the potions like you asked."

Lea's shoulders slumped and he sighed. "Thanks."

I shot a murderous glare at him. "You have him on potions?"

That was the last thing I needed to hear- my brother was on alien drugs.

"Chill out," Lea glared back. "You could probably use one too."

"They're just meant to heal us," Marino told me and turned to Lea. "Sorry about her. She's like a mother bear. Mess with her babies and she'll maul you."

Lea chuckled. "You don't say."

I glanced back and forth between the two, wondering when they had become close friends. I felt a hand on my shoulder and looked over to see Yuffie's contorted face.

"You never mentioned that you knew Axel," she said, frowning.

I raised an eyebrow at her. "Axel?" I turned on him. "What does she mean by that? Is your real name Axel? Have you been lying to us?"

Lea looked away. "Eh, it's a long story."

Marino got in between us before I could dig my nails into his face and attempt to rip it off. "Calm down, Sole. He said it's a long story, so he has an explanation."

I didn't have a chance to reply. The black creatures started popping out of nowhere unexpectedly, surrounding the group.

"Back away!" Lea shouted, bringing forth fire and his chakrams.

I grabbed Marino's wrist and forced him to start running away with me as everyone else took battle stances. I didn't care at this point. They could fight for their lives all they wanted, but no one was going to put Marino in harm's way.

"Sole! Where are you going? They need our help!" Marino protested.

"They can help themselves," I grunted, running down the stairs.

Broken fences led me to an entrance of a tower but we ended up being cornered once we were inside.

"Perfect. Just perfect," I mumbled, seeing the exit blocked and the way ahead of us showed me a broken staircase so we would have to jump and climb about if we wanted to move forward.

"Get away from us," Marino shouted and waved his hand in front of him. A blue celluloid wand with a silver crown on top materialized in his hand. The smaller details on the wand revealed tiny silver swirls on the handle.

I stared at him, perplexed, until I recalled the events from what I thought was a dream. "You chose the wand?"

But that had been a dream. How could he possibly have a wand in his hands? Maybe Lea had given it to him, but if that was the case, how did it suddenly appear? Like magic?

He ignored me and sprinted toward the black creatures with a war cry, smacking them on the head with his wand. I couldn't watch him fight alone so I waved my hand in front of me, willing the shield from my dream to appear. Dream or no dream. I was going to protect my brother.

Something invisible tightened around my right hand and I was suddenly holding onto the top of a shield, but it wasn't the same one from my dream. The white shield had yellow spikes jutting out of it and a giant red, elegant heart in the middle, resembling a white sun experiencing a solar flare. I stared at it in disbelief for a few seconds until I told myself I could ponder over it later.

I was needed right now.

I joined my brother in the battlefield, banging the shield against the black monsters, and then something with a weird red witch hat hovered above me. It had a black and red symbol on its chest, something I hadn't seen before, and it started to place explosives around us.

I swore under my breath, realizing that he was too far from me to protect him from the explosions. "Marino! Get over here! NOW!"

Marino followed my order and nearly fell on top of me, but Lea dropped in front of us before the explosions erupted. His arms spread around us to shield us and when the area cleared, he looked down at me.

"You're supposed to kill the Crimson Jazz _before _it surrounds you with bombs," he smirked, making me feel like an idiot. He eyed our wand and shield. "I see you found new toys to play with."

"I don't know how it happened," I blurted out, confused, and Lea shrugged his shoulders.

"Doesn't matter. I got this. Watch!" Lea jumped up the rubble of stairs and swung his chakrams, decapitating the creature. The creature's body exploded, releasing green orbs and diamond shaped coins.

_This is why I never wanted anything to do with aliens._

With the threat gone, Marino turned to me. "Why am I not surprised that you have a shield?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" I became defensive. "What are you doing with a wand?"

"Hey kiddies," Lea interrupted. "I hate to break it to you both, but you're coming with me to see Yen Sid."

"I thought you were going to avoid Yen Sid?" Marino frowned.

"Who's Yen Sid?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. "And why are you avoiding this Yen Sid?"

Lea rubbed the back of his head in shame, so Marino answered for him. "Lea failed to protect our world from the Heartless, which was a test given to him by Yen Sid."

I was quiet for a moment, registering the information. For Marino to be well informed, Lea must have opened up to Marino because he felt guilty. "Let me guess, Lea, if you had passed the test you would be Keyblade Master right now."

Lea looked confused but he nodded anyway.

"My bad," Marino apologized. "She knows because I drugged you the first night you were with us. You were talking about all sorts of crazy shit."

A ghost of a smile played on Lea's face. "You drugged me?"

Marino laughed sheepishly. "Yeah..."

"Back to the point," I said. "Who's Yen Sid and why are you avoiding him? And now you want to take us with you?"

"Man, you're slow." Lea rolled his eyes. "I didn't want to face the ol' geezer, ok? I failed the mission. How many more times do you want me to say it?"

I scowled, ready to smack him with my shield. "So you're avoiding your 'boss' because you failed your mission?"

Lea's hands were in the air again. "Yeah, keep rubbing it in!"

I snapped. "I'm not happy about it, you know!"

"Well, I'm obviously not either!"

"Look at that! We've all established that we're not happy with the outcome," Marino interrupted, becoming impatient. "Can we move along now?"

I wasn't letting it go yet. "Why take us with you?"

Lea gave me a sarcastic smile. "Did you want to stay here? That can be arranged."

I put a hand on my hip. "I'm just saying there has to be a reason as to why you want us to go with you."

Lea gestured at our weapons. "To figure out why you have those."

Marino and I stared down at the weapons. Marino grinned excitedly. "This is so cool! What if we could be warriors too?"

I gawked at him in disbelief. "Our world was destroyed and you want to go around playing super hero?"

"Party pooper." Marino stuck out his tongue.

I glared at him but then looked down at my shield in wonder. Perhaps going to this Yen Sid wouldn't be a bad idea since I had questions of my own.

I sighed. "Okay, Lea. We'll go with you."

* * *

Suntiger: Before my head gets bitten off, I swear on everything I value that I actually like all KH characters! So if it seems as if I make a character less likeable, it is definitely not intentional! As for Sole...well, she's a bit traumatized lol. Oh! And if you can't tell where they got cornered...they're in the bailey. I'm horrible at describing that place.

The next chapter might come a little slower. I'm still figuring out what BBS is about since I haven't played the game, so I have a lot of questions and doing research/reading.

I hope you enjoyed it! Thank you sooo much to those who have reviewed :D


	4. Roads Untraveled

**Chapter 4: Roads Untraveled**

I felt like a parent visiting the principal because of my child's bad behavior. Marino stood at attention, his arms straight down, staring right at Yen Sid. Lea stood in a corner of the room with his arms crossed over his chest and his head hung low.

Across from me at the table sat a stern, old sorcerer. On top of his head was a blue hat that was decorated with several tiny yellow stars and a yellow crescent moon. His long, grey beard parted down the middle and his equally grey, bushy eyebrows were thick above his eyes. He wore long, wide blue robes with light blue lining. What startled me at first were his eyes. The eyes themselves were small and dark, but they were wide open. I had to adjust being looked at like that because it made me feel like I had done something wrong. He had an intimidating air about him—always frowning, in control and calm.

I listened to him as he explained what Heartless and Nobodies were, the Keyblade War, and the point of Lea going into my world. Yen Sid and someone named King Mickey were gathering Seven Guardian of Lights, Keyblade Masters to defend the multi-universe from the Thirteen Seekers of Darkness. Clarifying the complexity of Xehanort's identity was a conundrum itself.

At the conclusion of his speech, Yen Sid placed his hands calmly on the table. "I cannot promise you that by doing so will guarantee you a way back home, but it will definitely lead you on a journey to discover how you can."

"Let me get this straight," I started, clearing my throat. "You're saying that Marino and I were chosen to represent our world, Earth, and given these weapons?"

"I think he was pretty clear on that," Marino butted in, mumbling. "And our world is called First Colony."

"You made the decision on your own," Yen Sid commented, his hands gesturing to us. "You chose the path of the Guardian, whereas you chose the path of the Mystic."

"Yeah but even so," I continued, addressing Marino. "He's talking about a war here. Do you remember what Grandpa was like after he fought a war?"

Marino rolled his eyes. "Yeah."

"No one is being forced to prevent another Keyblade War," Yen Sid stated calmly but he had a frown on his face. "However, your world is now in the Realm of Sleep, therefore you will not be able to return. Upon request, I'm sure Sora will restore it."

"He will," Lea said confidently.

"I'm supposed to trust this Sora to do the job?" I frowned.

"Rest assured," Yen Sid told me. "Sora has already been in the Realm of Sleep. His experience will enable him to save your world."

"By himself?" I asked, still unconvinced.

Yen Sid cracked a small smile. "Sora is never alone."

_Note to self: Must meet this person who they hold with such high regard. If he's going to be responsible for our world, I might as well befriend him and see if I can help._

I sighed, giving in a little. I didn't feel like I had a choice. "What will Marino and I be doing should we decide to join?"

"You would be helping Lea become a Keyblade Master. As mentioned, we are gathering Seven Guardians of Light. Lea is one of the seven, but he needs to pass the Mark of Mastery." Yen Sid stared at Lea. "He did not pass the last exam, but he has another chance to prove his mastery."

Lea's face brightened up. "Really?"

"And how exactly will we be helping him?" I asked.

Marino scowled at me. "Geez, give him a break. Whatever he needs, we'll do!"

"If we join it's because if a war does break out, then it'll affect Earth anyway. There would be no point of bringing it back if people will die all over again." I glared at Marino. "I'm not risking your safety just so you can go play hero. Your life—your heart, soul and mind is not a game. Do I make myself clear?"

"Fine," Marino huffed, making a face at me.

Lea joined us near the table, excited. "So what's my exam?"

"Lea, you will be responsible for Sole and Marino," Yen Sid instructed. "As you all will be doing a type of reconnaissance and recruitment."

"Recon?" Lea groaned.

I ignored him. "What will we be investigating?"

"Master Xehanort is still searching for vessels." The old sorcerer stroked his beard thoughtfully. "We need to prevent him from gaining more members."

I paused to examine him. Nothing about his face showed that he was hiding something, but I could feel it. He wasn't telling me everything.

"How do we do that?" Marino asked.

"Spying into other worlds," Lea answered, frowning. "Right?"

"There were four members of the former Organization Thirteen that have been brought back but have yet to be located," Yen Sid reminded Lea.

"Demyx, Luxord, Marluxia and Larxene," Lea named them. "You want us to find them?"

"Each one has returned to their home world. You must appeal to them to join our cause," Yen Sid hinted, causing Marino and I to glance at Lea. "This may also give you the opportunity to save your friend."

Lea averted his eyes. "When do we start?"

"You cannot depart with your current attire."

"What's wrong with my clothes?" I gestured at myself, making Marino chuckle.

"You will be vulnerable to the elements and unable to blend in the new worlds you will be venturing into," the old sorcerer said, cracking another smile. "Please visit the three fairies before you leave. They will provide you with enchanted garments. Give them a moment."

I didn't like the sound of that but we were led by Lea to the fairies. We waited in the new room for the fairies to appear. A small round table was placed in the middle of the room, accompanied by a fancy, carved wooden chair. A large wardrobe was on my left, a lamp sat on a small wooden end table was by the door, wooden chest of drawers was on my right, and numerous covered mirrors. The window in between the wardrobe and wooden chest was tall, green and had a whimsical design.

No fairies though.

Lea scowled. "At least I'm not paired up with a duck and dog."

Marino looked at him curiously. "A duck and dog?"

"You'll meet them at some point," he answered, glaring at me. "What's your problem?"

I glared back at him, wanting to ask him the same thing since he had gone sour when Yen Sid mentioned saving his friend, but decided to let it go. I already knew he wasn't going to give me an honest answer anyway. It was too personal and too soon.

I ran a hand through my hair. "Fairy or not, they better not put me in a dress."

"That's what you're worried about?" Marino asked in disbelief.

"Not really. I mean, they're fairies," I said. "You hear all about fairies in the European folklore. Not all of them are nice. In fact, most aren't."

"You don't have to worry about these fairies," Lea said. "The clothes you're getting will give you protection from damages that might happen in battle and from weather conditions."

"Lea, Yen Sid mentioned Seven Guardians of Light," Marino voiced himself, probably hoping we wouldn't start another fight. "Who are the other six? Are they all training to be masters?"

"The Seven Guardians of Light include Sora, Riku, Kairi, Aqua, Ventus, Mickey and me. The only real Keyblade Masters are Aqua, King Mickey and Riku," Lea said. "But both Aqua and Ventus are missing. Sora is on his way to be a master and Kairi…well, she's a Princess of Heart. Yen Sid is having her trained by Riku but I don't think he actually wants to use her in battle."

"Fantastic," I commented.

Lea shot me another glare but said nothing.

Marino glanced between us, ready to shut us up if we started to bicker, but I just shrugged. To be honest, I wasn't entirely convinced that Yen Sid wanted us to do recon. If what Lea said was true, it contradicted what Yen Sid said about gathering the Seven Guardians of Light. Sending Lea off to prevent more seekers of darkness was risky, and then he had Sora in the Realm of Sleep, Riku training Kairi, and two missing Keyblade wielders. For someone trying to gather people, he sure was spreading them out.

Why wasn't he looking for the two missing Keyblade wielders?

I was going to play along though. People have always said things happen for a reason, so there has to be a reason Yen Sid was sending us out.

I caught one of the wardrobe's drawers opening by itself and was surprised to see three tiny beings flying out of it.

"Wow, they really exist," I uttered softly as I stared at these tiny beings.

A ding sound went off, startling Marino as three fairies dressed in red, green, and blue suddenly stood in front of us.

"Oh good heavens!" exclaimed the one in red. "I was not aware we had guests!"

"Why, hello dears." The one in green was soft spoken. "How may we help you?"

The blue fairy puckered her face at us. "Who are you? Are you friends of Sora?"

I glanced at Lea for guidance since I wasn't sure as to how to socialize with fairies. "Well, um…"

"This is Sole and Marino," Lea introduced us. "Yen Sid said they needed new clothes for their journey."

"Lea, you're back already?" The fairy in red smiled and she went to us. "Ooh, manners. Hello Sole and Marino. I am Flora, this is Fauna and Merryweather."

"This is so cool," Marino grinned. "Can you do magic? Can I see?"

Fauna shared Marino's enthusiasm. "Well if it's clothes you need then you've come to the right place!"

"This time I will do the designing!" Merryweather declared.

"Still don't want us to supply you with something new?" Flora approached Lea, but Lea held up his hands defensively to fend off the fairies.

"Oh, no! You're not dressing me. I'm not changing my clothes. These are fine."

"But they're Organization Thirteen's clothes," Merryweather argued.

"They're fine," he replied shortly.

From what I gathered, they had been through this routine before, but Flora sighed and gave in. "Oh, all right."

Merryweather hit me with blue dust from her wand. "There."

I looked down to see I was wearing the same jeans and t-shirt I came in but they were entirely blue. "Really? That's it?"

Lea snorted. "Meet me outside when you're done."

"Hey! HEY! Don't leave us here alone!" I shouted but he was already out the door. "So much for listening skills."

"You're a nag, Sole. I can't blame him," Marino teased and laughed until he was hit with red dust. He grabbed a handful of his shirt and shook his head. "I am not wearing pink." He was hit with green. "I'm okay with this."

We must have been there for at least an hour, since the fairies kept disagreeing on what colors we should wear and what style we should have, and finally Marino couldn't take it anymore.

"Okay, look." He was trying not to offend them. "This is worse than when my girl friends drag me to a mall and take forever trying on clothes. Please, PLEASE, just pick something!"

The fairies gasped and took a step back. I raised an eyebrow at him. "Girl friends? Since when? Why haven't I met any of them?"

Marino squirmed underneath my questioning glare. "Erm, well…"

"Now, now, dears," Flora said. "Let's do this together like we did with Sora."

"Marino," I started, tapping my foot on the floor, but then we were hit by a white wave from the three wands and I went blind for a few seconds.

"Ooh, it's splendid!" Fauna was impressed.

"We outdid ourselves this time," Merryweather smirked, nodding her head.

"Now these aren't ordinary garments, dears," Flora said. "They have very special powers."

"I'm sure," I mumbled, blinking a few times as my vision slowly returned.

"You will have to figure what those powers are as you continue your journey," Merryweather told us.

"You mean you don't know?" Marino asked.

I stomped on his foot to keep him quiet. They were still fairies, after all, and all fairies like to be shown gratitude. "Thank you very much."

Marino stuck his tongue at me.

I looked down at what he was wearing and smiled. It suited him. Marino had a thin, black multi pocket vest over a navy blue high collared shirt with two silver intersecting straps on his chest. His long black pants had silver tribal patterns and two silver belts on his left leg. His steel toe boots were black and navy blue, matching his fingerless gloves that stopped at his wrists. A silver chain dangled from his neck, having two crescents, one of the moon and the other displaying watery waves, connected by a blue jewel.

"You look good," I said, ruffling his hair. He swatted my hand away.

"Aww, shucks, but I always look good."

"Brat," I playfully teased.

I checked to see what I was wearing and approved its simplicity.

The collar on my fitted black, sleeveless trench coat stuck up to cover the sides of my neck and I was wearing it over a gold halter top with a white laced bodice. I had black shorts with two random white belts intersecting at my hips. The black boots that came up to just below my knees had three white buckles on the sides and a small heel, so they were comfortable enough to walk around in. My black fingerless gloves had gold lacy cuffs, stopping at my forearms. Around my neck was a golden orange sun pendant on a gold chain.

I looked over our outfits, noticing all the random belts, buckles, and zippers. It made me wonder if the fairies were in interested in bondage.

"Cool, we're almost like a yin and a yang!" Marino grinned.

"Be careful now, dears," Flora said. "The road ahead of you will not be an easy one."

"It's ok." Marino gave her a thumbs-up. "I learn the hard way."

"Ain't that the truth," I muttered under my breath.

"Good luck!" The fairies cheered, shooing us outside.

We were greeted by Yen Sid. I didn't realize how tall he was until he stood in front of me. "Lea is outside waiting, but I wanted to speak a moment alone with you two."

_Oh here we go._

"Lea may experience some…difficulties," he said. "Be sure to observe him carefully, for he has fallen to the darkness once before."

I wanted to ask what I should do in case he fell again, but I was afraid of the answer. "Very well."

"Return to Radiant Garden and search for Merlin." Yen Sid looked outside his star shaped window. "The wizard will instruct you on how to wield magic."

Marino pumped his fist. "Aye, aye!"

"Yes, sir."

We hurried along, coming across Lea and a gummi ship. The nozzle was black, the crew cabin was white, the wings and body of the ship was blue, and at the sides were red cannon-looking like objects. I stared at it, forcing myself to remain calm.

"Oh wow, that is so cool!" Marino bounced with excitement. "What is it?"

"A gummi ship," I said in horror.

"Exactly," Lea replied, smirking. "Apparently I've been banned from using the Corridors of Darkness."

"The what?"

"The black portal thing that he uses," Marino answered. "It's how you got to…say, what happened after we went through the portal? She wasn't with us in Radiant Garden."

Lea folded his arms. "If she met up with Leon and his group, she probably ended up in Traverse Town. Am I right?"

I nodded. "Apparently that place appears and disappears…could Earth do the same?"

Lea looked thoughtful. "Kind of. Traverse Town appears when a world is destroyed, giving survivors a place to go. If the world is restored, then it's not needed anymore and disappears."

That would explain Yuffie's earlier statement.

"Why weren't you using this earlier if you were banned from using the portals?" I glared at him. "Why are you banned anyway? Did you do something illegal?"

Lea almost laughed. "Still don't trust me, huh? Give me a break. I just got this thing from Yen Sid."

"That doesn't answer the entire question." I put my hands on my hips stubbornly.

"There's a risk involving their use," Lea informed us. "The user is left vulnerable to the effects of darkness—you could be corrupted or destroyed by it."

"Is that what happened to you and your friend?" As I predicted, it was too soon and Lea avoided the question.

"So are we off to Radiant Garden first?"

"Do you even know how to fly this?" I asked. I assumed he didn't because he normally took the portal route.

"I'll fly it!" Marino shouted, already heading in.

I immediately shot Lea a glare. "You will not let him fly it."

"Well duh," Lea said. "What's the matter? Afraid of flying? Heights?"

I ignored him and entered the ship, my fingernails leaving crescent moon shaped marks on my palms as I went. I refused to show any weaknesses in front of him, knowing it'll be his source of mockery later.

Lea took hold of the gears, teaching Marino what buttons not to push and what buttons he was allowed to touch in case Lea needed his aid.

"So what happens if I press-"

"The universe will explode." Lea laughed at Marino's horrified expression. "I was just kidding."

I sat back in one of the white seats and prayed on everything holy that I would survive this flight.

"We should name our gummi ship," Marino said.

"_Our_ gummi ship? It was given to me."

Did I seriously have to teach a grown man how to share?

"So? We're all in this together!" Marino looked at me. "What do you think?"

I shrugged. "Whatever you two want. I don't care."

"How about Jesters?" Marino proposed.

Lea rolled his eyes. "Yeah, there's a name that will make people take us seriously."

"Well what name do you want to use, princess?" I teased.

The red head paused, thinking fondly. "Roxas."

"Dude, we are not naming the ship after your girlfriend," Marino scowled.

"He was my best friend!" Lea snapped.

I sighed. "How about Firefly?"

"After your favorite show?" Marino thought about it. "I approve."

"Fine. Whatever," Lea grumbled.

I glanced over at him skeptically. "Best friend, my butt. That sounds like a serious bromance."

Lea shot me a nasty glare. "Do you really want to annoy the pilot?"

I shrugged my shoulders and closed my eyes, allowing myself to be indifferent. The flight was a horrifying roller coaster ride. After an hour of swerving left and right, twirling, and nose diving, I hid myself in the bathroom. My stomach was ready to eject everything inside.

"Where did Sole go?" Lea asked.

"Probably in the panic room," Marino chuckled.

I could hear the arrogance in Lea's voice. "I _knew_ she was afraid!"

"Nah, she's not afraid of flying, but she's claustrophobic."

"I'm not doing too badly for my first try," Lea said.

"Not too bad?" I growled, slamming the bathroom door open. My anger pushed everything else out of my mind. "_Not too bad_? Did you even TRY to dodge some of those asteroids? Are you trying to give death a booty call?"

They both laughed as Lea landed us.

"Look we made it!" Marino cheered.

I wanted to kiss the ground. "Thank God."

"And this is where I leave you," Lea announced.

I narrowed my eyes at him. "What do you mean?"

"Leon and his crew aren't exactly friendly with me," he said.

"Gee, I wonder why," I sneered, folding my arms over my chest.

"What are you going to be doing?" Marino asked.

"I need to go practice with my keyblade," he answered offhandedly.

"Fine," I said angrily.

"Fine," Lea said. "Bye."

He took off the moment Marino and I were off the gummi ship. Marino stared at me with a smile on his face.

"What?" I asked, annoyed.

His smile became a big grin and innocently said, "Nothing."

We began walking around in search of someone I knew, but instead we came across a white duck with a black top hat.

"When you think you've seen it all," Marino muttered under his breath.

After staring at it for a few moments, I said, "I'll ask it for directions."

I studied the duck first, taking in his light blue eyes that looked through small glasses and brown cane, and decided he was probably elderly. He had a blue jacket with a folded down red collar, red cuffs, and a medium sized yellow button near the neck. It was tied by a red belt around his mid-section. Something red covered his duck feet.

"Excuse me," I said as I approached it. "Sir?"

"Well hello there, young lass!" The duck answered back. "How are you on this fine day?"

"I'm…err, well," I began, surprised that it responded. It took me a few seconds to compose myself. "I am looking for a wizard named Merlin. Do you know where his residence is?"

"Oh! His residence is quite easy to find!"

I took note of his directions and thanked him, also learning his name. Scrooge McDuck was apparently well known for his sea-salt ice cream and I was to visit him any time I wanted to try some.

Marino smiled at me when I came back with directions. "Well?"

"Let's get moving," I said.

Following Scrooge's directions, I dragged Marino by the hand downstairs and into what Scrooge called the "Borough". Merlin's house was supposed to be the first one I came across after going through a short open tunnel, a passage, and up a few stairs. Turns out the duck knows his way around the place.

I hesitated in front of the wooden door, not too eager to begin my training, so Marino knocked for me. The door opened to reveal a thin, elderly man with a floor long white beard, a mustache, large nose, and close-set dark eyes. He was wearing a sky blue cloak that had large sleeves and a very tall, floppy blue hat.

I think I'm starting to understand how Dorothy felt when she met the Wizard of Oz.

He pushed up his glasses before he addressed us. "Hello there! You must be Sole and Marino. Yen Sid sent word of you! I am Merlin. As you can see, I am a wizard. Now, Yen Sid has requested that I teach you magic."

"Right." I sighed in relief. I didn't want to explain why we were here.

"Come in, come in," he insisted, waving his hand.

The first thing I noticed was the large computer and stacks of papers and books by it. I chuckled to myself, feeling a little at home since I used to do the same thing when I did homework. A chalk board stood right next to the computer.

"Now, bring out your weapons," Merlin instructed.

"Um…" I stared at him, being absolutely clueless.

The wizard smiled. "You summon it at will."

Marino had no problem summoning his wand. "What's next?"

I took a minute or two more to bring out my shield.

Merlin eyed me curiously. "I see that you are still hesitant about your role."

I snorted. "I don't even understand what my role is."

"You chose the path of the Guardian," Merlin began to explain. "Which means your role is being dominantly defense—a physical fighter. Marino, on the other hand, chose the path of the Mystic. Marino will be the one casting all the spells."

"Then what I am doing here?" My eyes narrowed in annoyance.

"Oh ho! You can still learn something!" Merlin chuckled. "Now, I will enchant the furniture. Sole, you will be defending yourself against them. Here you are, Marino. This is a book of spells. Read them before you join her. You will be attacking with your knowledge of spells."

Marino stared at him in disbelief. "You want us...to practice here? In your home?"

"Yes, of course! Don't worry about the damage," Merlin said. "It's not as if I can't fix anything with magic! Marino, the spell book!"

Marino? Study spells? He was barely making it through high school because he hated studying for his classes, but then again this is magic. He'll be more willing to learn since it's 'cool'.

I didn't have time to think when a wardrobe threw one of its drawers at me. I threw up my shield quickly and tried to stand my ground.

"No, Sole! You mustn't stand like that! It makes you easier to knock over," Merlin told me. "Put your right foot forward and your left foot back. It's a better fighting stance."

I did as I was told, but I rolled my eyes. Sure enough, I was able to push away the drawers and ended up knocking the wardrobe across the room.

"Ooooh, full of pep, aren't you?" Merlin chuckled. "Keep your legs bent! You need stability while you fight!"

"For a wizard, you sure know your fighting stuff," Marino said in awe.

"I pride myself in having knowledge of almost all subjects," Merlin grinned.

A table aimed for my head so I rolled away.

"Fire," Marino shouted, his knees bent and he pointed the wand at the table. An orange glow encircled the blue wand and it spat out a fire ball, causing the table to burst and disappear.

Marino smirked. "Sweet!"

I wasn't paying attention, still in awe that Marino had learned so fast, when I got smacked in the back by a chair. I spun around and walloped the chair with the yellow spikes on my shield, slicing through it.

"Not bad," Merlin said. "Not bad at all!"

It was fine until the tea pot decided to pour tea on top of my head.

Marino let out a loud laugh. "Looks like the furniture are really out to get you!"

Furious, I felt something inside me boil and it sparked in my hands. I glowed slightly black and purple, and blew up the tea pot without knowing how I did it.

"Sole, no!" Merlin shouted at me. "You must not use the darkness! You do not want to travel on that road!"

I blinked, confused. "What…was that?"

Merlin gave me a worried look. "Perhaps, for the time being, I shall be teaching you on a one-on-one basis. I'll begin with Marino. Sole, would you mind stepping outside?"

I knew I must have done something wrong, but I complied instead of arguing. I rubbed the back of head, forgetting that my hair was wet due to the tea, and sighed. "This is going to be one hell of a journey."

I think two hours passed. I idly sat on the steps to Merlin's house, still waiting for my turn, and caught a glimpse of familiar red hair.

The spiky, lion-mane, annoying keyblade wielder approached Merlin's house with a confident stride. "Done already?"

"Haven't even started," I answered. "He's training us one-on-one."

"Oh," Lea said, folding his arms over his chest. "Marino's having all the fun then."

"You could say that."

"Why do you smell of tea?"

"Had an incident." I shrugged my shoulders, bored.

"Right." He looked around as if he wanted a reason to leave.

"You don't have to stick around," I told him. "Leave if you want."

"I never said anything about leaving," he groaned. "Why do you always pick a fight with me? Are you still blaming me for what happened to your world?"

"Well, that is your fault," I said. "But it's also kinda fun to irritate you."

He smirked. "Oh yeah? Should we make a game out of it then? Who can piss the other person off more?"

"You wouldn't win."

"I doubt that." He held out his hand. "Challenge accepted?"

I looked down at his hand and back at him. "Nah."

"What do you mean 'nah'? You afraid of losing now?"

"No, I just know it won't be fun any longer."

"Lea! About time you have joined us!" Merlin greeted the red head. The door to his residence was slightly ajar.

Lea waved. "Yo!"

"Is it my turn?" I asked the wizard.

"Oh yes," Merlin said. "I'll be with you in a bit, Lea."

As I walked in, Marino walked out. He looked ready to pass out. He limped when he walked, dark circles were under his eyes, and he yawned.

"Good luck, sis," he told me. "I'm gonna nap."

I stared at him as he walked away until the door was closed. Merlin was quiet as he rearranged the furniture to his liking so I stood patiently with my arms folded behind my head. I wanted to stretch a bit before Merlin started hurling furniture to beat me senseless.

"I want to address your earlier use of darkness," Merlin initiated the conversation with a serious tone of voice.

"I already know I can't use it."

"Well, yes, but you must know why." He faced me. "Darkness resides in all hearts, as you probably already know, and every individual is capable of wielding it if they wanted to. You already seem to have an affinity for it."

"That's not good, isn't it?" I frowned.

"Well…if you had asked me years ago, I would have said it was a bad sign, but I have met keyblade wielders of great strength and genuine hearts who possess the ability to use darkness."

"But you just told me not to use it."

"Darkness comes from and feeds off of revenge, hate, greed and fear," Merlin continued. "It can be used for good, but there is great risk in doing so because there is always the danger of losing yourself to it. Tell me Sole, do you seek revenge?"

"Eh…no? I see where you're going with this. I don't hate anyone. I'm not greedy. And I'm not afraid," I answered, crossing my arms stubbornly.

Merlin chuckled. "That sounds like pride talking. This is a very serious matter, Sole. I cannot bring myself to train you if you cannot discuss it."

I groaned. "Oh come on!"

Merlin narrowed his eyes at me and I almost became nervous. I didn't know what this wizard was capable of doing.

"Okay, fine, fine! I'm…afraid," I admitted, looking at the ground.

"Thank you for being honest," Merlin said. "Now, what are you afraid of?"

I glared at him for a few minutes, not wanting to share my feelings. Flashbacks of Alessia's body on the ground, twitching, her eyes glossy, and her pale skin rushed to the forefront of my mind. I grimaced, wrapping my arms around my shoulders.

"I…I don't know what happened to my family." I hoped to God that they didn't suffer her fate. "And I don't know if I can prevent the same thing from happening to Marino. It's my responsibility as his older sibling to keep him safe."

"Fear leads to an obsession of power," Merlin stated. "Please understand, Sole, that you are not alone in this. There are many warriors fighting to protect their loved ones."

I wanted to tell him that his fun little fact proved to be useless when it came to saving my world, but thought against it. I'd just be digging myself a hole.

"So can we begin now?"

Merlin shook his head. "I want you to really think about your journey ahead of you and what you want to accomplish as a Guardian."

I frowned. "Are you serious?"

He narrowed his eyes at me again. "Do I come across as joking?"

My hands went up. "It's whatever to me. I guess I'll see you when I see you."

I left his house without saying anything else and was met with two pairs of eyes. Green hues were curious whereas the hazel ones were tired but attempting to focus. Lea didn't bother saying anything to me as he entered Merlin's house, acting indifferent to my presence.

"Can we go on a walk?" Marino asked.

I gave him a questioning look. "A walk?"

"Yeah, a walk and talk," he said. "We can go to the Bailey. That's where we got cornered, according to Lea."

I sighed. "Sure."

He led me to the Bailey and stopped when we were in front of a huge gap that showed us the view of what looked like a broken down black fortress with Heartless symbols on it.

"You wanted to talk," I said.

"I think you really suit as the Guardian," Marino said. "You're very much guarded yourself."

I frowned. "Where are you going with this?"

"I mean…you didn't even shed a tear when our grandparents died. I don't know if it's because you didn't want us to see you in a vulnerable state, or because you were so used to being the adult since our parents were always absent and you had to deal with the funeral arrangements yourself. At least, that's what I think." He paused to listen for a response, but I was still taking in his observation.

"And I also think that," he continued, "Fiore and I are lucky. We were able to be kids because we had you. I just want you to know that you have us, too."

I stared at my little brother, remembering the day our grandparents passed away two years ago. Our parents were overseas. What they were doing there, I don't remember. I was nineteen, Marino was fourteen, and Fiore was six. The two of them cried their eyes out as they stood in front of me at the funeral. I had one arm wrapped to each of their shoulders. I wasn't crying.

Grandpa once told me that I would never know how strong I was until I had to be strong for someone else. He figured that out when he fought in the Vietnam War and had to lead his squad.

I suppose, at the time of their death, I was leading my squad against the reality of death. I wanted to protect them and nurture them through it, making sure they never felt alone.

I smiled sadly. When did Marino grow up? Did I miss it or was I there the entire time and didn't notice?

"What?" Marino questioned.

"You've given this a lot of thought, eh?"

"Yeah." Marino scratched the back of his head. "You're always so serious and distant, but I couldn't understand why back then so I just…watched you."

"Watched me?" I raised an eyebrow.

Marino laughed. "I'm not a creeper! I just…noticed that you're the kind of person that relies only on herself, but will shoulder the responsibilities of others, like our parents' responsibility to take care of us. You don't ever relax."

"How could I? You nearly cut off your own hand when you stuck it down the garbage disposer and Fiore would have eaten her own poop if I didn't keep an eye on her," I laughed, shaking my head. "And those are just from your younger years. You two have kept me busy ever since."

"Oh, yeah. I remember that. Wasn't she like…three? She used to talk to it, too. Say stuff like 'I have pretty poop'?" Marino laughed with me. "And in my defense, I was trying to save my Batman miniature figurine from the disposer."

We were quiet for a while until he asked, "You ever wonder about what happened to Fiore?"

I leaned against the wall and looked down at the black fortress. I lied. "I try not to think about it."

Marino paused and then said, "I miss that little terrorist."

I gave him a faint smile. "We'll see her again."

"I bet she's driving the heartless and nobodies insane," Marino grinned, even though the look on his face knew that the possibility of her being alive was slim.

"Probably," I humored him. "They'll regret taking her and might even beg us to take her back."

He appreciated it but became silent and I could sense the concern. "What?"

"I don't think I'm cut out to be a Mystic," Marino sighed. "I mean it sounded cool and all, but this is…"

"Scary?" I offered.

He hung his head in shame. "I'm terrified. I mean, you've always been a guardian of some sort, but this whole magic stuff is completely new."

I snorted. "You think carrying around a shield and being smacked by flying furniture is normal for me?"

"Well, no…but…"

"You'll be great, Marino," I encouraged him. "There's nothing we can't take on together."

I wasn't going to say it out loud, but I wasn't going to let him go first in any battle or mission whatsoever. If I have to, I'll force Lea to take the lead and I'll follow, but Marino will not be going in head first. Though, I doubted that I needed to force Lea into battle. Lea obviously chose the path of the Warrior, so he was going to charge into a battlefield like a nutcase anyway.

I sighed, figuring I had just gained another person to guard.

Yep. This was going to be one hell of a very long, tiresome journey.

* * *

Suntiger: I don't own Firefly lol. I don't really know where Merlin stands on the whole darkness thing so I just went with the flow on that. I'll be bringing in Disney worlds that haven't shown up yet.

Thank you Destinys heart, Normal-is-boring-96, imm0rtal, and pichufan101 :D

I hope you enjoyed the chapter!


	5. Captured Light

**Chapter 5: Captured Light**

"So any idea on where to start looking for your long lost comrades, princess?" I teased.

Lea frowned. "I have a few."

After Merlin informed us that Marino had enough practice with magic and needed to learn the rest from experience, Lea made us camp out in the Firefly. He was determined to send us to a world to gain more experience in the battlefield before he paraded us around the multi-universe to locate the former nobodies.

Lea rubbed the back of his neck. "Just don't be surprised if some of them attack us."

"Do any of your former comrades like you?" This was a sign that I had an awful teammate.

"Hey!" Lea said defensively. "Plenty of people like me. Just not the former members of the Organization."

"Right. What do we do if they don't decide to join us? Yen Sid didn't say," I asked, earning a smirk from Lea.

"We could always knock them out and mail them to Yen Sid."

"And people don't like you—imagine that," I answered sarcastically to his brilliant plan.

As Marino slept in the back of the Firefly, snoring like a hibernating bear in a cave, I took the opportunity to ask Lea about darkness, reckoning that he might have some answers since he had dabbled with darkness himself.

"Darkness? What about it?" He shot me a suspicious look.

"What was your darkness?" I took note of his physical posture as he shifted uncomfortably in front of me. Body language indicated that he was not proud of his association with darkness.

He opened his mouth to say something but then quickly closed it and tried it again. "I just went too far."

That was probably the most I was going to get out of him. "Do you mind if I ask what it was like being a nobody?"

"Geez, I did not know your brother could snore so loud," Lea said and stood up.

"Oh for the love of God, Lea, we're teammates! How are we supposed to work together if you know nothing about me and I know nothing about you?" I snapped. "That is not how you build a strong foundation."

"Fine! If you're so eager to exchange information why don't you tell me about yourself?" Lea snapped back.

"Fine," I answered, patting the empty space next to me to encourage him to sit and chit chat. "Ask and I shall tell."

Lea remained where he stood, glaring at me. "Why are you so damn cranky?"

"That's not even a good question. That's like me asking you why are you an ass!"

"I am not an ass!"

A loud snore resonated in the Firefly. Tension and silence paced around each other.

"Why are you so curious about the darkness?" Lea asked.

I sighed, figuring I might as well be honest. "I used it while training with Merlin."

That got his interest. "Oh. I guess you want advice then?"

I narrowed my eyes at him. "It would be helpful and nice."

"Well all you had to do was ask." Lea finally chose to sit down, taking his place on one of the white seats.

I bit my tongue. I was telling myself to behave or he'll never talk.

"It's not necessarily a bad thing," Lea said, "as long as you accept your darkness and don't allow it to consume you, you can wield it."

"How do you accept darkness?"

"Figure out what your darkness is first," he answered.

"I told Merlin it was fear."

"Is it?"

"I think so. He said darkness feeds off of jealousy, greed, fear, and hate."

Lea chuckled. "Well, what's the cause of the negative emotion?"

I felt like handing him a clip board and pen and telling him to say "And how do you feel about that" like all the therapists do in movies.

But I was still behaving myself.

"I'm afraid I can't protect Marino from what goes on out here. I don't know if you'd really understand since I don't know if you have siblings, but my little brother and sister ...they're also my best friends. I was Marino's first play mate and Fiore's role model." I chuckled a little bit. "Marino used to come to me when he had nightmares and we'd stay up to just talk about what scared him. Fiore would always want to talk about ...well, whatever it was that interested eight year olds."

I bit my lower lip. "It was easier back home, ya know? I know the dangers there- drugs, alcohol, unprotected sex. These were things I understood and could, in some ways, control. I feel like I have no power here. Not when you've got creatures that rip out your hearts and things that run around with only souls keeping them alive. Doesn't it disturb you? To think that the nobody you destroyed was once human? A person with their own family and friends?"

"Not always," Lea answered. He put up his hands defensively when he caught my glare. "What? I was a nobody too. It's not like I felt anything for most of the time."

"Most of the time? So you felt sometimes?" Now I was getting somewhere.

"Let's get back on topic," Lea said. "So you're afraid that your brother will end up as a heartless or a nobody. Is that the only negative emotion? Fear?"

_Damn it! I was so close. _

I sighed. "Maybe it's also resentment."

"Do tell."

_It's official. Lea the Therapist. _

I started fiddling with the necklace. "My grandparents died on accident. They had left their garage closed, and well, their car was turned on. They weren't…weren't right in the mind. Even on their best days, they didn't remember me, and my parents just abandoned them. I was the one who fed them, bathed them, and took them to their doctor appointments because they couldn't remember to do these things."

"That must have been difficult."

"Do you know what it's like to be stared at by a loved one and they can't remember you?" I glanced at Lea and caught him smiling a sad, understanding smile before he pulled on a poker face. "Lea?"

"Go on," he said.

I stared at him to make sure I hadn't imagined it before I continued. "Don't get me wrong. I didn't mind being there for my grandparents. They took care of me when I was younger. They always showered me with affection. But my parents...my parents were never there. They were never at any of Marino's games, Fiore's plays or my science fairs-"

"Science fairs? You're a nerd!" Lea grinned.

I waved him off. "Yeah, yeah, tell me something I don't know. Point is that I had to. I was there for them. I gave them structure, morals and values. And that's not fair, you know? Children need attention, to know that their parents love them and-"

"Sounds like you were the parent," Lea interrupted my rant. "At least your siblings know that you care for them, right?"

I wanted to ask if he had siblings. I really did. He had this pained look on his face like he was missing someone or failed to let them know how much he cared about them. He also seemed to know what I was talking about- wanting to protect your younger siblings and being responsible for them. Your siblings, who at times were the only ones who understood you and gave you that sense of belonging somewhere, yet at the same time could drive you insane because they had their own way of thinking and would act on their thinking, to which most, if not all, times you had to be the one who bailed them out.

However, I knew he wouldn't answer. He'd shrug me off and change topic.

That's the delicate thing about friendship. I've observed that an individual must know the importance of timing. When to listen, when to speak, when to give constructive criticism, when to accept criticism, when to ask personal questions without overstepping someone's boundaries...

Apparently, even with the destruction of my world, Lea and I weren't there yet. Even though I was spilling my guts out to him about my personal issues and I didn't even want to, but someone had to begin the process of bonding in order to forge a strong team because there was no way Lea would share personal information first.

So despite my curiosity, I let it go. "Yeah, and you know what the end result is?"

"You're a pain in the ass who can't take a joke?"

"Well…yeah, I suppose so. I don't...I do not know how to relax," I said. "And now I can't ever relax. I have this bad feeling something will happen to Marino if I don't stay alert and keep an eye on him."

Lea gave me an understanding smile. "First off, you need to accept the fact that you're not alone in this."

I narrowed my eyes at him. "That is exactly what Merlin said."

"Merlin's a smart man," Lea said, stretching his arms over his head and folded them behind his mane of red hair. "So go ahead and relax. The world's a dangerous place but not everything is out to get you."

This only made me scowl. "It's not me I'm concerned about."

"You can't protect him forever, Sole. Kids grow up. If you try to shelter him from the world, he won't know how to deal with it." Lea wasn't looking at me at this point. "Or he could run away to figure things out on his own."

I can't protect him forever, eh? Well I could most certainly try.

'Course, that's just me being stubborn. I can't help it. I've always been that way-ever since elementary school. There was a boy in my class who always came to school with no lunch money. I remember him with his black bowl hair cut, big chocolate brown eyes, and chapped lips. He would watch his classmates eat in front of him with big, puppy eyes and nibble on his bottom lip to trick his body into thinking he was eating, and then he would force himself to look away.

I ended up sharing my lunch with him. I was only nine but I could understand his pain. Not the pain of starving, but the pain of being ignored. I was not going to let him suffer alone.

_Why is it always the children that suffer the decisions of the adults?_

He eventually moved to another state and I never heard from him again, but I never allowed my siblings to go through that pain. I made sure I was always available to them. I would always protect them.

Lea, unfortunately, was right. And so was Merlin. I had to let go of my fear.

It takes effort. It takes time.

Time I could not afford. I also could not afford to be careless. This was still Marino's life that I was guarding. With experience, and with this messy journey ahead of me, I'll be guarding Lea's life too. Learning how to relax, how to let go of my anxiety, which is apparently creating my darkness will be a challenge.

"I'm not going to be able to change overnight," I muttered.

Or if ever, in all honesty.

"It wouldn't be real even if you tried to," he responded with a soft voice.

"So...how do I do this?"

"Start by loosening up your shoulders. You've been on alert since you smacked me in the Borough."

I grimaced. "My bad. I overreacted."

He shrugged, completely indifferent. "It's fine. I got over it."

My shoulders slumped, a strain on my back that I didn't know I had was released, and it felt really weird. Wasn't this bad posture?

A big grin spread across his face. "There you go! That's a start! Okay, now I'm going to teach you how to take a joke, ready?"

I stuck my tongue out at him. "I can take a joke. I may have been uptight for most of my life, but not all of it. I can have fun too!"

"Fine. What do you do for fun? I'll pull out your hair if you say read."

"I used to play pranks, especially on Halloween. I was the worst."

"Oh yeah? What was your favorite prank?" He glanced at me curiously.

"My parents had gone out to a Halloween party to get drunk, so I took Marino and Fiore out trick-r-treating. We wanted to get back at them so I called them early and told them we were going to one of our neighbor's house for a sleepover." I was already grinning from ear to ear. "And we hid upstairs. Marino hid in the bathroom, Fiore in her room, and I was in their bedroom. Sure enough, they come back home completely drunk."

"And?" He inched closer to listen more intently.

"SSHH! I'm getting there! So they think they're home alone. Well, Marino drops his baseball bat like we planned and that spooks them. They start arguing about having ghosts in the house or demons or burglars, and they come upstairs armed. So while they're checking out Marino's room, Marino and Fiore ran into the master bedroom, put on their Halloween masks, and we all hid under the bed covers."

His eyebrows knotted, slightly confused. "Why? That's the easiest place."

I shook my head. "They had a waterbed so if the bed moved it would have looked normal, which is something they actually argued about when they eventually got to their bedroom. 'Course, they first argued who was going to check under the covers and then tried to figure out if the bed was moving on its own."

"So after listening to 'You go check it out' and 'No way, you're the man. You're the one who's supposed to check it out', we pulled off the covers at the same time and screamed at them. Mom shrieked like a little girl, dropped the knife she was holding, ran into the wall, and then ran downstairs. Since she was drunk and wearing heels, she tripped and landed on her ass at the bottom of the stairs."

"What about your dad?"

"Fainted on the spot. Thought we were real monsters."

Lea shook his head. "What happened afterwards?"

"We got grounded," I said, "But it was worth it. Not often you can scare the living daylights out of your parents."

"How old were you?"

"I was sixteen…that means Marino was eleven and Fiore was three."

"Why didn't you ever tell your parents how you felt?" he asked.

"I felt like I'd be selfish. I mean, some kids don't even have parents, and I had both of them. They just …were never around. They always put their careers ahead of us. I guess they figured we'd take care of ourselves."

There was a long stretch of silence before Lea stuck his hand out to me.

"Truce?"

"Truce." I smiled and shook his hand. "But that doesn't mean we're done here. You still have to tell me about yourself."

He yawned, stretched and stood up. "Maybe another night. I'm going to sleep. Good night, Sole."

Oh that little shit pulled a fast one on me.

_Timing, Sole, timing. You have to build a friendship on a foundation of trust and respect._

Whatever, I'll get him when I get him.

I yawned. "Good night."

He headed to sleep in one area of the Firefly and I headed to the other.

I woke up six hours later when Marino decided it would be absolutely hilarious to practice his water magic on me.

"Wakey wakey!" he shouted. "Lea wants to go to Wonderland first."

I glared at him, wiping my bangs away. "Does he need me awake to steer Firefly?"

"No…" Marino blinked.

"Then shut the hell up and let me sleep," I growled and turned over, falling asleep for another two hours.

I was jolted awake, feeling Firefly shake violently like an airplane going through turbulence, and a siren was going off.

I looked over my shoulder in alarm. "Lea…what did you do?"

"Nothing!" he answered in a tone that only made me more uneasy. "Go back to sleep!"

I groaned and mumbled under my breath, "Should have stuck to portals."

I stood and gripped the walls as I attempted to reach my seat. Marino gave me a small wave in greeting.

"I'll ask again," I said as I tucked my inhaler into one of my trench coat side pockets. "What the hell did you do?"

Lea ignored me as he messed with the various buttons, steering wheel, and gears. His red hair was sticking up in dangerous angles, his green eyes on fire with furious energy, and his hands were moving faster than my eyes cared to keep up with.

"He took on a Heartless, it kicked his butt, and now we're crashing," Marino replied with surprising calmness. "Doesn't this machine have some backup system?"

"Yeah, it's what I'm working on," Lea answered, still tinkering with the gears. "It's just taking its sweet time!"

I rolled my eyes as the siren stopped and the ship gradually began to stop shaking. "First class pilot." I smiled at him, giving him a thumbs up.

"I panicked at first," Lea frowned. "It won't happen again."

"The mind is hysteria's favorite prey," I answered, still half asleep. "So…where are we going?"

Marino pouted. "I told you—Wonderland!"

Landing was rough as Lea nearly demolished our landing ground. Stepping out of Firefly, I stopped in front of a tree that had a large hole at its base. Before I could open my mouth to question Lea's sanity, I was shoved into the hole, free falling along with Marino and Lea. My fall was slowed down and I floated to the ground.

That felt almost familiar. I had fallen like that before at some point.

We followed a narrow hallway to a room with a red and pink checkered floor, a circular blue table in the middle, random sized chairs and a fireplace. Or at least, I think it's a fireplace.

Lea held up one of the two bottles on the table. "All right, this is how it goes. We drink and shrink."

"I didn't know you had a drinking problem," Marino joked.

Lea rolled his eyes. "Just take a sip."

"You first," I told him.

Lea shrugged and took a sip from the bottle. He gradually began to shrink in size until he was able to stand on top of the table without breaking it.

"Well?" I heard him squeak. "Hurry up and drink!"

"It's like that movie-_honey I shrunk the kids_." Marino stared at the mouse-sized Lea. He immediately took a sip, handed the bottle to me, and joined Lea on the table.

I stared at the bottle labeled 'Drink me', feeling unsure and uncomfortable. This was not like me to drink foreign liquids, but here goes nothing. I shrank down to their size and noticed how their voices sounded normal rather than like chipmunks.

"OK, we're going to treat this like a game—not that it is a game," Lea added quickly when he saw my glare. "Whoever destroys the most nobodies or heartless wins."

"What do we win?" Marino asked.

Lea looked thoughtful. "Don't know yet. We'll figure out the prizes later."

"Heads up," I said, alerting the duo to a black armored heartless approaching us.

"That's a Sergeant." Lea brought out his keyblade. "They're annoying little shits so watch out for them."

Lea charged for the Sergeant, followed by a hilarious attempt at a war cry from Marino. The Sergeant was annihilated, disappearing and leaving behind coins.

"You'll want to collect these," Lea said, showing the coins to us. "Typically when an enemy is defeated, they drop all sorts of goods. This is munny."

"Wait…if I wanted to become rich, all I would have to do for money is destroy lots of heartless and nobodies?" Marino glanced curiously at Lea.

"Don't get any ideas," I told Marino.

Lea shook his head. "That would be one hell of a profession, kid."

"It can't be that bad," Marino said. "Some of the heartless I've seen are cool looking!"

"Oh yeah, cute and cuddly until it feasts on your heart," I said, crossing my arms.

You see what I mean about the insane behavior siblings do? I have to wonder where he leaves his brain sometimes.

"Think fast, Sole!" Lea shouted. "Large Body!"

I barely had enough time to summon my shield and defend myself against the attacking Large Body. The Large Body charged at me stomach first and I bounced off its stomach. I was sent sailing into the air, crashing into a bunch of Sergeants.

"Fix your fighting stance!" Lea barked at me as he collided against the Large Body.

"Fire!" Marino shouted, shooting a fire ball out of his wand.

Even though the Sergeants were struck, that didn't stop them from coming after me. I began whacking them, trying to cut them with the edges of the shield. It took five or six smacks with the shield, with the help of Marino's magic, for all of the Sergeants to finally burst and shower me with coins. I joined Lea at tackling down the Large Body, grinding my teeth together as I was knocked around.

"Attack it from behind!" Lea instructed.

"I'll be the distraction!" I shouted. I was already in front of the heartless and its attention was fixated on me anyway. As I held my ground against its pounding fists, Lea eliminated the Large Body from behind.

Never have my forearms felt so sore. "We got it."

"Yeah but it got you too." Lea pointed at my scratched up, bruised arms. "Marino, do you know how to use Cure yet?"

"Not really. So far I've only been able to conjure Fire and Water in practice."

"They're just scratches," I said casually.

Scratches that bled and stung like hell, but I wasn't going to tell him that. I didn't want Marino practicing magic on me and turning me into a squirrel on accident, so I sucked it up.

"Then get a move on," Lea ordered.

Lea was way ahead in the game, having taken down twelve Large Bodies, ten Air Soldiers and thirty Sergeants by himself. Marino only dealt with the White Mushrooms, seeing as they seemed to have taken a great liking to sneaking up on him. I had become the favorite victim of the Large Bodies. Every time one spotted me, I was immediately bounced off their stomach and hurled into the air.

On a positive note, the Large Bodies were unintentionally teaching me how to properly guard myself. While I didn't stand a chance if they came at me directly, I could still block their swinging fists. A couple of times the Large Body went completely berserk and I had to run for it.

"Are they still cute and cuddly?" I hissed at Marino after Lea destroyed the Large Body that had chased me.

At least I had gotten rid of five Sergeants on my own.

"What the hell is that?" Marino was staring wide-eyed at a heartless that resembled a guardsman with a massive black dog on its shield.

"That would be a Defender," Lea answered, excited.

I stared at him, realizing he was actually looking forward to fighting it! I shot a look at my younger brother, whose face was horror stricken, and stood in front of him. I had already predicted this. I had already told myself that Marino would never go into a battle first.

Lea shouted a warrior's battle cry, swinging his keyblade at the shield. He was bitten on the arm by the dog-shield but that didn't slow him down. He wielded fire in one hand, aimed it at the guardsman, and whacked the shield with his keyblade.

The guardsman twirled his shield and dog's eyes glowed red. From watching Lea, I gathered that a keyblade wielder must have an insane amount of stamina. He was jumping around, dodging, and fencing in his opponents without sweating, panting or losing energy.

"Sis, we can't just watch," Marino said. "We're supposed to be a team."

I looked at him and then back at Lea and sighed. Granted, he seemed fine but Marino was right. We were supposed to fight like a team. "Okay, but you hang back. I want you to fight long-range. Cast any magic spell you can at the Defender."

"All right." Marino nodded his head.

The Defender began shooting out fire balls. I jumped in front of Lea, who had fallen back onto the ground, and covered his upper body with the shield.

Lea chuckled. "Thanks, but I'm good here."

"Shut it," I smirked. "I need to learn something anyway."

"You mean other than being thrown around like a doll?"

"Didn't I just tell you to shut up?"

The Defender breathed ice our way and I had to cover us with the shield. I heard Marino shout out "Fire!" and the ice was melted to prevent further damage to us. Lea leaped towards the Defender, his feet grounded themselves on the shield, and he swung at the guardsman's head. The heartless exploded, leaving behind munny and green orbs.

"Green orbs?" Marino looked puzzled.

"You put this in potions," Lea said, picking it up. "And you can use it to heal yourself." He handed me a vial that contained the green orb. "Drink."

"This is what you took when I first met you, right?" I asked curiously. "A potion?"

"Yup."

Why not? I was drinking everything else without questioning what it was made of.

"Bottoms up, I suppose." I downed the potion and my eyes instantly went to my skin to see if I was starting to grow... I don't know. An extra hand or something bizarre. I watched as my skin neatly knitted together and healed itself, the blood flowing back into my body. "Wow, so strange to see cellular reconstruction."

The boys gave me a peculiar stare, both having their eyebrows raised.

"Don't look at me like that. I majored in biology."

Marino shrugged and turned to Lea. "So now what? Do we just chill here and fight?"

Lea gestured to the door behind the bed. "We go there to get through the maze."

"Why do you want to lead us to the maze?" I questioned.

"I need to have a word with the royal court," Lea answered, already walking ahead of us. The man has no patience whatsoever.

Marino and I exchanged glances, shrugging. Well, if I had known we were visiting royalty, I would have asked the fairies for something a bit more fancy to wear. As soon as we stepped through the door, we were greeted by frantic, shouting cards.

Not even kidding.

They were animated, black or red, walking and talking cards with gloves and floppy shoes. They were all shrieking, pointing their lances and axes at us.

I stared at them, trying to understand what was going on. "Lea..."

Lea shrugged, indifferent. "Don't know. Maybe the Queen ordered to have them all beheaded."

"Why would she do that?" Marino asked.

"You want to steal the Queen's crown!" The ace of spades accused me, cornering me with his axe.

"Hey! My sister is not a thief!" Marino defended me. "Back away from her!"

A ten of hearts shoved Marino with his lance. "Then it is you!"

The cards swarmed us without warning. I immediately began knocking them over with my shield, careful not to cut them up or I'd probably face the wrath of the royal court. I made it to a clearance where I could see giant mushrooms and plants, but there was no sign of Lea or Marino. I didn't want to start yelling their names in fear of attracting the wrong sort of attention, so I began sneaking around and peeking around corners.

The more I walked around, the more bizarre the world seemed to me. Just a few seconds ago I could have sworn a flower was talking to me, but I walked away believing it was just my imagination.

"Geez, what a weird place," I muttered, keeping my head low.

"Ha, wait until you see Halloween Town," Lea said from behind me, an annoyed scowl on his face. "Where's Marino?"

I sucked in a breath. "You mean he's not with you?"

He shook his head. "Are you kidding? I thought he was with you? You're usually on his ass."

"The cards have him." I was barely able to speak as my lungs shut down. My chest tightened as if I was being squeezed by an invisible force, wrapping around me like a boa constrictor. I began coughing and wheezing as my throat closed up on its own will.

"Hey! Hey now!" Lea's eyes widened with worry. "Don't panic! We'll find him."

I shot him a glare.

Don't panic? _Don't panic?_ How can I _not_ panic? And you don't tell people not to panic! It makes things worse!

I forced myself to sit down on a tree stump, pulled out my inhaler from my trench coat and took two puffs of the Albuterol. I've always hated being light headed, a side effect of taking the medicine, but I knew I'd pass out if I didn't get enough oxygen.

"Hopefully you'll find him while he still has his head attached," a voice proclaimed.

I looked up to the speaker and found myself staring at a purple and pink striped cat sitting on a giant leaf above my head that resembled a lily pad. Big yellow feline eyes were watching me with curiosity and mirth as it rested its head on its paws.

"What did he just say?" I asked Lea, my heart pounding in my ears. "Did he just say while his head is still attached?"

"No, no. The Cheshire Cat just meant while your brother is still sane," Lea said after hearing the hysteria climbing out of my voice box. He shot the cat a warning glare to stay quiet.

That didn't settle my nerves at all. "What do you mean sane? Is he going to be insane if we don't find him soon?"

The Cheshire Cat chuckled, gaining both of our attention. "He went that way."

I stood, feeling my world become unbalanced due to being light headed, but managed to glare as the cat pointed both right and left. "Who went what way?"

"Your friend did." He tilted his head.

Lea remained calm and collected. "What did this friend look like?"

"What friend?" The Cheshire Cat grinned.

I looked at Lea. "We're going to be here all day, aren't we?"

The cat let out a mad giggle. "Day? Night? There is no time here."

A vein pulsed on my forehead and my left eyeball twitched. Lea let out a long sigh as I balled my fists and dug my nails into my palms to keep myself from screaming. I don't care if this cat was high, stoned, drunk, or depressed and wanting to inflict its misery onto others. I had to find Marino and get out of this maze.

"Did you see a boy about this tall?" I put my hand above my head. "With hazel eyes and dark brown hair?"

The Cheshire Cat clucked his tongue. "Can this boy stand on his head?"

"UGGGHHH! It's like I have to translate bat shit crazy to English!" I shrieked.

"Bats shit like crazy? They must have fed upon something foul," the Cheshire Cat grinned, his stripes slowly disappearing.

"Any advice?" Lea asked.

"How can you ask that thing for advice?" I snapped. "He's not mentally stable!"

"I like to think that crazy is just one of his better attributes," he said.

"Better attributes?" I parroted, my patience becoming thinner.

"You have eyes that can see in the dark." The Cheshire Cat reappeared centimeters from my face.

I backed away to regain some personal space. "Of course I can see in the dark! It's called night vision!"

"He's not going to help us. We might as well ignore him." Lea grabbed me by the collar of my trench coat and dragged me away before I could murder the Cheshire Cat since I already had my arms outstretched to the cat, prepared to strangle it.

"Any ideas, princess?" I snarled.

"Yeah, we get back Marino," he smirked. "Gotta head to the Tea Party Garden."

He was still dragging me when we got to a small wooden gate. He kicked it open and released me once we were standing in front of a long table of empty plates, tea pots, tea cups, and empty seats with the exception of one.

At the end of the table sat a man with short platinum blonde hair, a goatee, and amused blue eyes. He had five silver piercings, four of them helix piercings, and one of a silver heart. He had a white blouse that ruffled at his neck, slightly exposing his neck and chest. He wore a crimson red vest with gold buttons down the middle over the blouse, crimson red trousers, and white dress loafers.

"Ah, Axel. I was beginning to wonder how much time it would take for you to discover my location," the man greeted us with a haughty smile. He folded his hands, each finger decorated with ruby rings, on the table.

I had to hand it to the man. He knew had to accessorize.

"Luxord," Lea responded with a curt nod. "I actually go by Lea."

"Ruldo."

Lea smirked. "The Jack of Hearts."

"I need not to be reminded of my identity," Ruldo said impatiently. He noticed me standing behind Lea. "I see you've brought a guest. How rude of you to not introduce us."

I frowned. "My name is Sole."

"I'd like to know how you found me." Ruldo cut his eyes to Lea.

"Cheshire Cat talks too much. Told me he saw you," Lea answered. I could see from my angle that he had a cocky grin on his face.

I was tempted to burn a hole into the back of Lea's head with my glare, knowing he was so full of shit, but I rolled my eyes instead.

"And I also figured that you're the thief who wants to steal the Queen's crown," Lea continued, getting straight to business. "Why you want to steal it is beyond me, but I have a proposition for you."

"I'm listening," Ruldo replied.

"Wait, you're not denying that you're the thief," I pointed out, bemused.

"That would be correct," Ruldo smirked. "The lass is a bit slow on the uptake."

"She's new at this," Lea said shortly. "You want to hear the deal or what?"

"Why steal the Queen's crown?" I interrupted them, causing Lea to sigh and turn around to glare at me.

"Why not steal it?" Ruldo still had that stupid, condescending smirk on his face. "She's not the risk-taking type, is she?"

"Nah, she's the 'going to slap you silly if you step out of line' type."

I took a deep breath and looked upward. Whatever higher being existed, it enjoyed testing my patience and sanity.

* * *

Suntiger: I originally planned Sole to suffer from an anxiety disorder but I gave her a physical condition instead. I thought it'd be more ironic since the guardian is a physical fighter.

In _Alice in Wonderland,_ the Knave/Jack of Hearts steals a tart from the Queen...so I kinda ran away with that idea.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed the chapter! Please read and review! I'd like some feedback on what I could work on!


	6. Connected Hearts

**Chapter 6: Connected Hearts**

They all belonged in straightjackets. Madness must be contagious here. How else could I explain Lea's absurd plan?

"Lea, remember that plan? I liked that plan. Knocking them out was a brilliant plan," I said but my words fell on deaf ears.

Granted, I was lying, but the original idea was so much better than what Lea had in mind. He was already heading out to see the Queen of Hearts with his plan and I was following behind him like an idiot to prevent him from carrying it.

"Sole, I've dealt with Ruldo before." His longer stride was making it difficult to keep up with him. "He's all about the gamble."

"Yes, well, right now you're gambling our heads and I don't appreciate it," I said. "There isn't a guarantee that Ruldo will join our side if we steal the Queen's crown for him."

The bastard was originally going to do it himself, but seeing as the Queen of Hearts had my brother and we wanted him on our side, Ruldo decided it'd be more entertaining if we did the dirty work for him in exchange. The Jack of Hearts was curious to see how it would turn out, something about "Using curiosity to carve out the path of fate even though it could also bring someone's doom."

Translation: I really want to see how bad you screw this up.

He smirked. "That is why we're not going to give him the crown once we have it."

"And this solves our problem?"

"Sole, just relax. I got this. I've spent years with that guy as a nobody so I know his quirks," Lea answered.

The more he told me to relax, the more anxious I became. "She has my baby brother."

Lea turned around and patted me on the head like I was a child. "It's going to be fine. I promise. I'm the man with the plan, got it memorized?" He pointed to his forehead for emphasis.

I sighed. "You could be walking into a death trap."

"It _is_ a death trap," Lea smirked.

A vein throbbed on my forehead. "And yet you continue. Are you suicidal?"

He spun around to gently tap me on the nose. "You said you wanted to build a strong team, so start by trusting me."

This coming from the person who barely tells me anything about himself.

"Trust isn't so easily given," I glowered. "And stop touching me like that. I'm not a pet."

"Do you remember your part in this?"

I stopped, blinking. Oh shit. "Sort of?"

A long, exasperated sigh escaped from him. "There can't be any 'sort of' in this. Do you remember or not?"

I crossed my arms. "Fine. I'm good to go whenever you are."

The Cheshire Cat chuckled as it appeared before us. "How exquisite you are when bathed in folly."

Lea grinned. "Cheshire! Just who I was looking for."

Yep. Madness is contagious here. How can anyone be delighted with that cat's presence was beyond me. I tapped my foot impatiently as Lea included the mentally unstable cat in his so called grand scheme.

"What kind of garden do you come from?" I felt something soft gently touch my hair, causing the hair on my neck to stand and I spun around to face the voice. I found myself staring at a red rose. My eyes widened in realization.

The flowers _were_ talking to me earlier!

"My, what strange petals you have," the rose said, the leaves on her stem curved to make it look like a human with her hands on her hips.

A daisy raised her head. "She might be like Alice."

"I'm…I'm not-LEA!" I shouted, only to find the redhead missing. "CRAP! He must have gone ahead without me!"

I took off running without looking back, entering the maze but realized I had no idea where I was going. I couldn't recall if the maze was part of Lea's plan. I slowed my pace and continued to walk until I came to a dead end. I scowled and turned around to try again but came to another dead end.

I sighed and resisted the urge to tear out my hair in frustration. "Well, this is just perfect. Now what am I supposed to do?"

A wind picked up, rustling through the leaves of bushes that made the maze. I eyed it suspiciously as it encircled me with leaves. A low, distinct female voice seemed to chant within the wind. The wind rushed forward, causing me to look up and there she was, the Native American woman from my dreams. She stood a couple of feet ahead of me, almost waiting for me.

"I'm losing it," I muttered to myself, feeling quite uneasy. I needed to get out of this place.

"Listen with your heart," she told me, placing her hand over her heart.

I gave her a quizzical glance. "Listen for what? I have no idea of what you're talking about."

She began to fade as if she was a ghost but the wind remained, circling me again and rushing straight out of the dead end.

"Am I supposed to follow it?" I asked out loud to no one, sighing again. I poked my head out of the hedge, watching the wind carry some leaves and small glowing specks with it as it made a path for me to follow.

Add this to the many things not to tell people when I get home, when things go back to normal.

My eyes caught sight of red hair and immediately zoomed in, watching the cards push him forward with their weapons. My palm lightly smacked my forehead. Lea had turned himself in, as according to plan, and he probably told them all he was the thief.

If this didn't kill him, I swear I'm going to kill him when this was over.

I looked around for the Queen of Hearts. According to Lea, I was small enough to sneak past the cards and during the uproar, whatever uproar that may be, I was supposed to steal the crown.

Lea clearly overestimated my stealth skills.

I instantly spotted a woman with a strange red and black dress, a crown on her head. She had a smug smile on her face as she tucked away a few strands of raven hair behind her ear. "Are you indeed the thief?"

"Yes, I am the thief you've been looking for." Lea shot her an equally smug grin.

I rolled my eyes as I crouched low, gradually tiptoeing my way to the throne as all eyes were on him, just as he wanted.

"Off with his head!" The Queen of Hearts bellowed.

As if on cue, Lea summoned his chakrams, spreading fire to the ground. The cards yelped, backing away as the flames nearly licked the top of the maze.

I guess that was my sign to take the crown.

The Queen of Hearts was bouncing up and down with excitement on her throne, clapping her hands together like she was expecting a good show. I kept my eyes on the crown as Lea tore through the cards and just as my fingertips barely touched it, the crown floated above her head on its own. I stared it in disbelief until the Cheshire Cat materialized with the crown in its mouth. He grinned at me, eyes glowing with mirth.

"I should have known," I mumbled.

A loud gasp was heard. My head shot up to come eye to eye with the Queen. She looked at me, at the cat, and then back at me. The Cheshire Cat spat the crown at me, hitting me in the face with it just as the Queen screamed, "OFF WITH HER HEAD!"

I picked up the crown and ran, summoning my shield just in time to fend off the angry crowd of cards.

"You just had to talk." Lea jumped in, putting his back against mine. He spun a chakram in his left hand, taking out five cards. "You would have gotten away with it if you had been quiet."

"You could have told me what the Cheshire Cat's role was," I retorted.

"You were too busy socializing with flowers," he teased.

"Oh shut up!" I banged one of the cards on the head with the shield. "I still haven't seen Marino!"

"Don't worry about it. I have that covered," Lea smirked.

Suddenly everything stopped. The cards stood frozen in place, nothing moved, nothing even breathed.

"What the hell?" I nudged one of the cards away with my shield and it fell to the ground lifelessly. "What just happened?"

Lea straightened up, putting one of his chakrams over his shoulder. "Looks like Ruldo paused time."

"He can do that?" If that was true, why didn't he freeze time earlier so we could have stolen the crown without creating a fuss?

"Let's get going!" he barked, already running ahead of me.

I huffed but trailed after him, nearly colliding into him when he came to an abrupt halt. "What now?" I looked beyond him.

There was Marino, sitting with his knees drawn close to his chest in a giant golden bird cage. A lost, sullen look was on his face.

"Marino? MARINO!" I shouted.

His head snapped up. "Sole?"

I raced forward and gripped the bars of the cage, giving it a rough shake. "Ok, don't panic! I'll get you out!"

Marino's eyes became alarmed. "Sole! Behind you!"

Time had become unfrozen and the cards were scurrying after us. Lea was already ramming his chakrams into the cards and setting a few ablaze. I could hear him yelling "Don't underestimate me!" and "Burn, baby, burn!" over the ruckus. He kept the cards from reaching us to give me time to break Marino free.

I smashed the shield into the bars repeatedly until one of them cracked, ignoring the Queen of Hearts' shouting, "OFF WITH THEIR HEADS!"

Marino summoned his wand. "Sole, get down!"

I ducked as Marino shot waves of water at the cards, knocking them over and putting some of the fire out. Lea gave him a dirty look and Marino shrugged apologetically. I kept working on the bars until an axe flew by my head, missing my face by a few inches. I spun around to confront the Jack of Spades, a card resembling an executioner, spinning his spare axe in his hand.

I yelped as my shield clashed against his axe, feeling the vibration of the blow in my right arm. That was going to hurt later.

"Sole!" Lea yelled in warning. "Look out!"

I dropped to my feet and rolled, not even sure if that was the right move to do, but managed to dodge another executioner. The Jack of Clubs carried a spiked morning star and several of those spikes would have cut into my back had I not moved. I now had the Jack of Clubs in front of me and the Jack of Spades behind me, and Marino was still trapped inside the giant bird cage.

Lea, on the other hand, was sparring with the Jack of Diamonds. He was snarling every vulgar word and insult at the jester who only toyed and played tricks on him.

Where the hell was the Jack of Hearts?

The Jack of Spades swung his axe, catching me on the arm as I twirled myself away to avoid the oncoming spiked club from the Jack of Clubs. I shrieked as the stinging pain shot up my arm and blood oozed out. I crouched to the ground, grinding my teeth so I wouldn't show weakness.

"Sole!" Marino had his wand pointed directly at me. "Move away!"

"I'm trying!" I had one hand on the ground, my knees bent, and my shield was holding off the pounding spiked club.

A white light engulfed the area, shaking the ground so violently that I dropped my shield to hold on. The cards fell on their own, dropping their weapons as they toppled over. Time stood still as the light disappeared, but something was off.

I wasn't sitting on grass. I wasn't looking at skies.

When I opened my eyes I found myself in a dark area, on top of a colorful platform. The outline of it was a dark garnet red, outlined with the Roman numeral number eight repeatedly, and in the background was a clock tower with a dusky sunset. Inside the inner emblems were images of people I didn't recognize. A man with blue hair and yellow eyes had his arms wrapped around the shoulders of what seemed to be a younger form of himself, except the X shaped scar was missing on the youth's face. A boy with windswept blonde hair and blue eyes was in another emblem and a black, hooded figure with a feminine form in another. Sprawled out across this platform was a slumbering Lea.

_Where am I? Is this another dream?_

_Who the hell is that?_ A familiar male voice snapped at me, causing me to jump.

"Lea?" I asked out loud because the voice sounded like his.

_Oh…no…_

A small white window appeared in front of me, hovering three feet above the ground, and opened to show me what was going on. The view showed me the Tea Party Garden, revealing the Cheshire Cat sitting on the table, Ruldo standing at one of its edges, and Marino nervously running his hand through his disheveled hair. Where was Lea?

"This is what happens when amateurs use magic," Ruldo said, handling a black coat in his arms.

"I should have known that this was too risky," I heard Lea grumble.

"Living requires taking chances," Ruldo smirked. "I just did not see this one coming."

"We were fine until…whatever happened with him." I heard Lea's voice and saw his right hand wave in front of me.

"I panicked, ok? She was going to have her head cut off!" Marino snapped defensively.

"Yes, but now where is she?" Ruldo teased. "Inside of him." His hand pointed at the window.

I froze. Was he serious? Was I trapped inside Lea? Was this place his soul or something?

The Cheshire Cat chuckled. "Instead of one there are two." His tail flickered, tapping the top of his head.

"Hello! Can anyone hear me?" I yelled at the window.

_Owww! You don't have to be so loud!_

Lea's voice was like on a loud speaker, echoing throughout the platform.

"I don't have to be so loud? Where the hell am I?" I waved my arms frantically.

"You okay, dude? You look like you're in pain," Marino asked.

"I'm fine. Your sister is just noisy," Lea answered, irritated. Ruldo began laughing, causing Marino to join him. "What's so damn funny about this? She's inside my head!"

"Oh my God, am I really inside your head?" I shrieked.

_Stop yelling! Man, oh man, do you have a set of lungs on you! _

"It's ironic! Every girl has wondered what goes on in a guy's head, or vice versa, and I make it instantly happen and neither of you are happy about it," Marino replied.

I growled. "I'm going to slap him when I get out of here."

_I can do that right now. _

"Touch him and die, from the inside out, princess."

"She's inside my head and still has the nerve to threaten me," Lea snidely commented. "Where's her body if her soul got stuck in my head?"

The men shrugged. I screeched hysterically. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DON'T KNOW WHERE MY BODY IS?"

"WOMAN! STOP YELLING AT ME!" Lea shouted, the window view suddenly showing me the sky.

I guess it's safe to assume that the window was showing me what Lea sees from his point of view.

Marino smirked. "Sis, try to be nice. You might give him a brain tumor."

Ruldo shook his head. "A woman does not belong in a man's mind."

"Oh go hug a land mine, Jack ass!" I snarled. "Like I want to be here!"

_Nice pun._

"This is all his fault! If he hadn't asked us to steal that stupid crow- where the hell is that crown?"

_I have it for now. We need it to bargain. _

"We'll put this on temporary hold," Lea said, his voice drawing a sneaky tone. "Ruldo, we kept our end of the deal. We have the crown."

Ruldo stroked his chin thoughtfully. "And I suppose you won't hand it over until I comply."

I heard Lea smirk. "Those are the rules of the game, right?"

"Very well, I will meet you at Radiant Garden," Ruldo answered, waving his hand to open a black hole. He cloaked himself and smirked at us before disappearing into the black hole. "Take good care of that crown."

"I thought there was a risk to using the Corridor of Darkness?" Marino asked, his eyes were glued to the spot Ruldo disappeared.

"There is, but that way of traveling is kind of like a drug," Lea said. "It's a bad habit to kick."

I smirked darkly. "Is that so? Well then I wish for the darkness to devour his soul."

_Wishing does nothing when reality laughs at you._

"A girl can hope, princess."

"We need to leave before the cards notice us," Lea announced, ignoring me. "And I need to visit Yen Sid to see if he can exorcise my mind."

"You make me sound like a demon."

_Close enough._

"This is going to be weird. I mean, what if she has to use the bathroom or something?" Marino eyed Lea curiously. "Then again, she doesn't have a body. Maybe she won't have to use the bathroom. Does that mean she won't have to shower either? Or eat?"

"There is no bathroom in my brain—what is wrong with you?" Lea snapped.

A vein pulsed on my forehead. "I wouldn't be so vulgar to do that."

_If you don't shut up I will put you in my childhood memories—the terrible twos! __I was a pain in the ass at two years old!_  


"Oh please, I bet you'd be easy compared to Fiore." I rolled my eyes. "I had to prevent that child from castrating Marino in his sleep."

There was a pause of silence.

_Violence just parties in your family, doesn't it?_

I snorted. "Yes, because we're all sociopaths."

_Don't get any ideas. I like being a man. _

I crossed my arms over my chest. "Don't piss me off and we'll keep it that way."

Why not let the man sweat and make him think I was capable of possessing him and removing body parts? Seemed like fun to me.

I kept quiet on our return to the gummi ship, turning away from the window because I had no desire to watch Lea drive. I looked around for any secret doors or other white windows. There had to be a way out of here. Hell, maybe I could open a Corridor of Darkness. Everyone else seems to be able to.

I had no such luck though. There wasn't so much a tiny crevice on this platform. I suppose in some ways that was a positive sign. At least his mind proved to be secured. I glanced back at the window to see Marino walking ahead of us, a recognizable tower a few yards away.

_You still there?_

"What? Miss me already?"

_I was just hoping you were a figment of my imagination.  
_

"Do you often fantasize about women in your head?" I joked.

_Talk about invasion of privacy._

I smacked myself. "That's not what I meant!" I heard him chuckle. "Come on now! I was all nice and quiet and now you're complaining?"

_Relax, I was just making sure I didn't flip the wrong switch._

"Switch? What is that supposed to mean?" I started to say, aggravated. "My emotions are more stable than that."

_You keep telling yourself that._

Yen Sid greeted us with a stern face yet his eyes expressed surprise. "Back so soon? Were you able to-"

"We have a problem," Lea interrupted. "Sole's stuck in my head."

"That was rude."

_Save it for someone who cares._

The sorcerer took his time to register that information. "I see. How did this happen?"

Marino quickly jumped in. "It's my fault! The Jack of Spades was, like, an inch too close to her head and I freaked out and I used magic and then it was all like 'LET THERE BE LIGHT!' And this bright white light blasted and then poof! She was gone! And then time stopped and Ruldo came out-"

"Calm him down," I told Lea. "Or he'll keep going."

"Woah kid, breathe." Lea patted him on the back.

Marino inhaled sharply and let out a puff of air. "My bad."

"Ruldo, hm?" Yen Sid stroked his beard.

"Yeah, I guess this is yours," Lea said, handing over the crown.

"This crown belongs to the Queen of Hearts," the sorcerer stated calmly.

"We had to steal it in order to get Ruldo to cooperate with us," Lea explained. "He's on his way to Radiant Garden."

"That bastard's soul should have been devoured by now," I growled despite knowing I was talking to myself at this point.

"Merlin will most likely send him to me," Yen Sid said. "And I will return the crown to the owner."

"How are you going to bribe him then?" Marino asked.

"There are other things that interest the Jack of Hearts," Yen Sid answered with a smile. "Now we must discuss Sole's predicament. You say she got there by magic?"

"My magic," Marino admitted shamefully. "Pure accident."

"How do I get her out?" Lea asked, persistent.

Marino shot him a look. "That bad, huh?"

"There is none," Yen Sid replied. "This was not done by a magic spell, but by a human reaction."

"Someone tell me he's joking," I muttered in disbelief.

"Because I freaked out," Marino said.

"Yes, it was your emotion that caused the magic to respond to your heart. In order to protect your sister, the magic sent her somewhere it believed she'd be safe."

Lea laughed mockingly. "And that place just so happened to be my head?"

"Not your head, but your heart," Yen Sid smiled.

I couldn't help myself. I started laughing. How ridiculous was this? Inside his heart? HAHAHAHAHA! Of all the places to be sent to! HIS HEART!

"Well…that's something I haven't heard of before," Marino mumbled.

Lea made a frustrated noise. "Ugghhh! Are you absolutely sure there is no way you can get her out?"

I inhaled deeply and ran a hand through my hair to calm my nerves as I listened for a response.

"Magic like this can only come undone on its own," Yen Sid answered. "I am afraid I can do nothing for you."

"Fantastic," Lea spat.

"What about her body?" Marino asked. "Did it disappear, too?"

"Her body will re-emerge when she resurfaces," came the simple reply.

"So what do we do now?" Marino glanced between the two older men.

"You return to your former duties one man…woman, pardon me…short." A tight smile was on his face.

Marino shot Lea an apologetic look. "Oh dude, I am so sorry."

"Hey!" I shouted. "What about me? What am I supposed to do?"

"She wants to know what she's supposed to do," Lea informed the sorcerer.

"She can still train herself," Yen Sid said. "Warriors are not born nor are they made. They are often ordinary people who, through their learning experiences and hardships, rise to the occasion. She has much to do."

"_Rise_ to the occasion? Is there a screw loose in that old mind of yours? I'm stuck in his heart!" I yelled, frustrated. "How do you expect me to train? Do you want me to damage him?"

_Scream some more. If you keep trying, maybe one day he'll hear you._

"She says she'll try her best," Lea lied and turned around without saying bye.

"See you when we see you, Yen Sid!" Marino called out while running after Lea, climbing aboard the gummi ship. "Where are we going?"

"I'm not sure yet." He played with the gears, half mumbling to himself. "Some place far, far away."

My brother raised an eyebrow at him. "You do realize that no matter how far you go, she's still going to be there?"

"He has a point," I said. "Unfortunately."

_I was thinking._

"Of what? A solution?" I looked up into the air hopefully. Was there even air in here? Should I be concerned about the oxygen supply?

_I need you to kill someone_.

"Aww, that's so sweet of you! To think of me while you were plotting someone's demise," I sneered.

_Go off yourself. Maybe that will force you out of me._

I scoffed. "Well if that's the case, why don't you just crash the gummi ship? Surely the impact would kill us both."

_That's actually not a bad idea._

I froze. "Wait! WAIT! Marino needs to be off the gummi ship!"

_Too late for that! _

Of course out of all the stupid suggestions I make, this is the one he likes.

I watched, powerlessly, as the gummi ship made a sharp nose dive, causing Marino to shout, "WOAH, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"

Lea laughed. "What the voices are telling me to do!"

Marino gripped his seat until his knuckles were white. "Voices? There's only one and I'm related to her!"

"Yeah, but you get the idea," Lea replied.

"Are you insane? We'll die!" Marino attempted to take the steering wheel, but Lea shoved him aside.

I stomped my foot on the floor, hoping maybe that would trigger physical reaction in Lea. It's one thing to kill me or himself, but Marino had a right to live out his life in peace. "Lea! LEA! STOP THIS INSTANT OR I WILL SCREAM SO LOUD I'LL MAKE YOU WISH YOUR HEAD COULD EXPLODE!"

_I ALREADY WANT MY HEAD TO EXPLODE, YOU WENCH!  
_

"I can be so much worse!" I promised, not knowing what else I could threaten him with. Maybe I was going about this the wrong way. Threatening him wasn't getting me anywhere. "Lea! If we die no one will be able to save your friends!"

The gummi ship became horizontal, steadying its pace, and it became quiet. I waited, giving the boys some time to compose themselves. I figured I struck a sensitive cord in Lea and Marino needed time to settle his nerves.

Marino stared worriedly at Lea, outside the gummi ship's window, and then back at Lea. He glanced down at his seat. "We need to install seat belts."

Silence grew again but there was no tension.

I heard Lea inhale a deep breath. "I need a place to think of our next move."

"Well, welcome back you homicidal maniac," Marino drawled.

I imagined Lea had given him a pissed off glare to warn him to not push any more buttons on him since Marino quickly withdrew into his seat. After all, it was Marino's fault I was stuck inside Lea.

"Where are we headed?" I asked.

"Twilight Town," Lea announced out loud. "That's where we're heading."

I left him alone for the remainder of the flight, walking away from the small white window and sat Indian style on the platform. If I was going to keep the peace then I needed to respect his boundaries and be mindful of what I do while in his heart.

How awkward to say that. I'm inside someone's heart.

"We're here," Lea said. "Here, go buy some ice cream." I watched him hand some munny to Marino.

Marino looked at it curiously. "Why?"

"We made a deal, remember? Whoever destroys the most heartless and nobodies wins," Lea answered rigidly.

"Yeah, but you won," Marino reminded him.

I snorted. "And some prize did he get."

That made Lea laugh for some reason.

Marino stared at him. "What? What did she say?"

"I got the best prize of all," Lea replied sarcastically.

I smirked. "That's not what I said."

_It's called paraphrasing._

"Aw man, this isn't going to be fun." Marino pouted. "Now you guys are going to have all these inside jokes and I'm going to feel like the third wheel."

"I'll switch places with you!" I declared loudly, regardless of having no chance of being heard.

Lea sighed tiredly. "In any case, winners get to choose the prize and I want some Sea-Salt Ice cream."

He spun Marino around and gave him a gentle shove in the right direction. Marino obediently went on his way to locate the store that sold ice cream, his head moving from side to side as he checked out the stores.

"Are you trying to get rid of my brother?" I asked.

_Just for a little while._

The scenery in the window turned black, causing me to frown because I could only guess as to what he was doing. "Lea, are you using the Corridor of Darkness?"

_Depends._

"What do you mean 'depends'? You either are or you're not!"

_Depends on if you yell at me._

"Lea! You were banned from using it for a reason!"

_Aww, come on, Sole. Can't you cut me some slack? _

"Absolutely not! You said it yourself! Using the Corridors of Darkness is like a drug and you really need to kick the habit!"

_But it's been a long day. _

"What am I? Your diary?"

_No need to be so sassy!_

The window showed me a clock tower, strikingly similar to the one that was on the platform I was standing on. The landscape shifted, suggesting that Lea was now sitting, and I was given the view of the peaceful town below me. A beautiful, orange and red sunset sponged the sky. Some of the lavender clouds were outlined with pink.

I began to feel really relaxed, wondering if these platforms revealed places and people that were important to the person. It would explain why my platform since it showed my siblings and grandparents. I didn't really understand what the deal was with the willow tree in the background, but I assumed it was supposed to symbolize Earth's ...First Colony's...keyhole. If that was the case, then this clock tower was significant to Lea. I looked down at the platform to examine the faces in the emblems.

These must be his friends. I wonder what happened to them, and which one needed saving?

I lost track of time, which isn't very hard to do considering my location. I couldn't see the time on the clock tower and I had nothing on me that would indicate the time. I began patting myself down, hoping to find at least my inhaler.

I sighed in relief when I felt its familiar form in my pocket.

_I used to eat ice cream here all the time._

His words were soft, as if recalling the memories. I suppose now that I was stuck within him he had no choice but to open up, even a little bit, or maybe he felt compelled to justify his actions since he used the Corridor of Darkness to get to the clock tower.

I ventured a little further since he provided me that information without me prompting him. "Why did you stop?"

_Ran out of people to come here with. Didn't see the point._

"What happened to the people who used to come here?" I heard him sigh heavily.

_Things change. Nothing lasts forever._

"That sounds so depressing."

_The truth is always depressing._

Oi vei!

I crossed my arms stubbornly. "I'm not sure if this has something to do with your friend needing saving, but while, yes, nothing lasts forever, that doesn't mean you have to give up on them."

_I never said I was giving up on them._

"No, but you sound like you are."

We were both quiet for a while. I contemplated pressing him for more information but decided that I rather he gave up the information on his own free will.

_How weird to realize that my inner voice is a girl._

"Of course, leave it to the girl to be the voice of reason," I countered his teasing. The window showed me black again and I narrowed my eyes in annoyance. "Lea," I said in a warning tone.

_Don't lecture me. I'm trying to find your brother._

Marino came into our vision, holding onto two bars of melting ice cream. He scowled when he saw Lea walking toward him. "Where have you been? Your ice cream is pointless now. A waste of munny."

"Hello to you, too," Lea chuckled. "You're just as bad as your sister."

"Well, we are related." Marino made a face at him. "So did you think of a plan while spacing out and having conversations in your head?"

"Yeah, but let's get back to the gummi ship first and I'll tell ya there," he answered, although slightly sour about it.

"Please tell me it's not like Wonderland." Marino gave him puppy eyes.

"Worse," Lea scoffed.

"So you already have somewhere in mind?" I asked.

_It's one place I know we'll find him._

"Find who?"

_Somebody I know._

I snorted. "Well, obviously."

_Then don't ask me stupid questions?_

Marino scowled. "Oh sure, leave me out of the loop. I can tell that you're talking to each other inside your head."

"Is that jealousy I'm sensing?" Lea teased, ruffling Marino's hair.

"Just keep me in the loop, ok?" He made a face.

I watched as the boys prepare the gummi ship for departure. "You're seriously not going to tell me?"

_Nope. I like irritating you. It's fun._

I rolled my eyes and walked away from the white window.

* * *

Suntiger: Sorry for the delay. I got sick with some crazy high fever and was out of commission for a while lol. I hope everyone was able to tell when Lea was speaking to Sole in his mind and when he was talking out loud. I didn't want to confuse anyone.

I really wish I knew more about Lea's past (don't we all?), but it makes it easier to avoid and keeps Sole in the dark.

I shall be gone for...I think a month? Life obligations calls (work, grad school, internships...the fun stuff), so I'll update when I can.


	7. Nothing lurks here

**Chapter 7: Nothing lurks here**

It was too dark to see anything. There was a loud siren ringing in my ears.

The siren threw off my equilibrium, causing me to sway back and forth until I was forced to sit with my knees close to my chest. The floor beneath me abruptly lit up with red light, blinding me for a few seconds before it revealed that I was confined inside a translucent box. Feeling as if I was about to be suffocated, I kicked fiercely at the sides and seethed as electrifying pain rattled the nerves in my legs.

Sweat slid down from my forehead. My damp hair clumped together on my face and stuck to my skin no matter how many times I tried to fix it behind my ears. My heart pounded in my chest at a rapid speed, about to burst out of its captivity.

I was panting. It was difficult to breathe, like I was trying to keep above water that threatened to go over my head.

A slithering sound caught my attention and I felt something with cold scales slip up my waist. The black snake-like heartless wrapped itself around my waist, flashing its beady yellow eyes. The heartless opened its mouth and let out a deafening screech as it continued to squeeze me to death.

_Sole! Stop screaming!_

I was jolted awake and immediately shot up in a sitting position. I inhaled sharply, remembering the sensation of not having enough air and the death grip. I counted to ten to calm my nerves and slowly came to my senses.

I blinked a few times.

I was still on the platform in Lea's heart. The translucent walls at the sides of the platform were far too similar to the box I was trapped in seconds ago.

Fantastic. "Sorry, I had a nightmare."

_I noticed. I'm starting to pick up your emotions. Try not to have a melt down inside my body.  
_

"Pick up my emotions?" I repeated, confused. He was calm when he replied.

_Yeah, we're probably developing some weird empathic connection. Might be a side effect of you being in my heart. _

Well this just keeps getting better and better.

I changed topic. "Are we there yet?"

_Nah, maybe in about ten minutes. Precious over here had me change course an hour ago._

An eyebrow rose at the new nickname. "Why?"

_It has come to our attention that we haven't eaten anything in a while. _

I paused to think and then realized that he had a point. I was used to forgetting about food- an unhealthy habit I tried to hide from my family. I've fainted several times due to low blood sugar levels and I've been sent to plenty of doctors since Alessia was worried that I had become anorexic.

That wasn't the case.

Please don't misunderstand! I absolutely love food! I just forget to eat or I don't eat when I'm stressed. I typically end up vomiting if I eat when I'm stressed due to the anxious butterflies and knots.

"So where are you eating? Is there like a restaurant in this weird space place that we're using to travel between worlds?"

He snorted. _I'm just dropping in the first random world I come across since Marino wasn't up for sea food._

"Which random world is this?"

_Well, the screen shows that we're approaching Pink Palace in seven minutes now._

"Pink Palace?" I asked, entertained by the name.

_I picked the lamest sounding world that couldn't possibly be dangerous so your precious wouldn't be traumatized. _

"Don't jinx it."

_Your optimism thrills me._

Lea landed the gummi ship smoothly on the grass, allowing Marino to leave first. I studied the place as I looked through the white window.

A wooden sign that read 'Pink Palace Apartments' was planted in front of a large, pink Victorian house. The house sat on a hill, having a narrow dirt pathway that led to stairs made out of assembled stones and up to the wooden front porch. There was a red staircase that led to the attic of the house, where a red flag waved gently in the breeze. Behind the pink house were more hills, an old garden shed, and what seemed to be an orchard.

_See, nothing creepy about this place._

"Are you planning robbing the place of its food?"

_Rob, no, I would never... Borrow?_

"Your sarcasm is not appreciated, princess."

_But you're still asking stupid questions._

"Maybe it's a Bed and Breakfast place," Marino said hopefully. "It can't hurt to knock."

I frowned, remembering all the times I was warned against strangers and unfamiliar locations. "Lea, why don't you make sure this place doesn't have any surprises for us first?"

He sighed, a hand running through his hair in annoyance. I sort of suspected that Lea petted himself to keep calm; much like you'd pet a dog to keep it from jumping on you during a thunderstorm. "Hang on, Marino. Let me do some surveillance first."

Marino smirked. "She's suspicious, isn't she?"

Lea was scowling. "As usual."

"Aww, come on! It's not that bad! Maybe this is even a good thing for you!" Marino grinned, a mischievous glint in his eyes. "Sole might be a killjoy but that's because she worries about our safety and whatnot."

Lea shrugged. "Whatever, but let's keep that information on the down low though, okay?"

"Don't want people thinking you have multiple personalities?"

"Or crazy?" I teased.

"Stay by Firefly until I get back," Lea ordered, ignoring us.

"Firefly?" I asked.

_You named the gummi ship and you don't remember?_

Oh, yeah. I felt heat rush to my cheeks. "Don't judge me."

Lea went on to scope the area, peeking into windows and took note of the house's layout. The living room was connected to the dining room and through the double doors was the kitchen.

"They must have just moved in," Lea commented out loud. "The rooms barely have furniture and things are in boxes. Doesn't look like anyone's here."

"No food to steal then," I said. I heard him smirk.

_It still wouldn't hurt to look inside._

At one point we heard dogs barking and followed the noise to the basement. Two loud women were talking, but we couldn't tell what about.

"Who are you?"

Lea spun around to face a young, lanky girl in blue jeans and yellow rain boots. A pink and green dragonfly hair clip kept her short blue hair away from her freckled face. Her unyielding brown eyes were giving Lea a stern glare as she adjusted the satchel's strap on her yellow rain coat.

"I'm just dropping by," Lea answered, sounding sly. "You wouldn't happen to know any places where a guy could eat?"

She crossed her arms defensively over her chest. "No."

I rolled my eyes. "You're such a charmer with kids."

_Why would I want to charm kids? Pervert._

"Well then, time's wasting!" Lea walked away.

Marino cornered Lea, surprising us. "There you are! I'm starving!" He spotted the girl behind us. "Oh hi, do you know where the nearest town is?"

She shot him a curious look, her shoulders relaxing just a little and pointed west with her index finger. Maybe she was less apprehensive with Marino since he was a teen. "There's one a few miles away. It might take you a while if you're walking."

Lea frowned. "How long is this 'while'?"

She shrugged indifferently. "An hour?"

"That's not too bad," Lea said, already heading west. "Later, kid."

"Coraline," she said, eyes narrowing in annoyance.

"Marino! Thanks!" Marino gave her a wide grin and waved to her before trailing after Lea.

I was probably the only one who heard Coraline mutter, "Weirdos."

An hour later, after passing by a rather dull store labeled _Uniforms _and ordering their food, the guys were munching on hamburgers and fries. I sat on the platform, wondering about what was happening to my body if I wasn't feeding it or keeping it hygienic. Perhaps my body was in a state of sleep until I could escape from Lea's heart. I certainly hope so. I didn't want to think about the possibility that my body might be decaying somewhere. It's not as if Yen Sid was very specific about its whereabouts and its condition.

_You okay in there?_

"Are you someone who's bothered by silence?"

_Only when it's the silence before a shit storm. _

"I've made you paranoid." I smiled somewhat victoriously. Lea shrugged me off with a '_whatever_' and returned his attention to his drowned-in-ketchup fries.

The guys were on the move once they finished their meal, heading back to the direction where Lea parked the Firefly. It had gotten darker yet the sky was illuminated by stars and an orange moon.

"Wow, it's cold," Marino mumbled.

I couldn't feel a thing but assumed he was telling the truth since I could see his breath as he talked.

"Autumn season," Lea scowled, disapproving of the temperature drop.

We were close to the Pink Palace apartments when a black rat the size of a small dog ran in front of Lea, causing me to let out a very high-pitched squeal.

_Sole! What have I told you about the noise pollution! _

I was too busy frantically jumping up and down to respond to Lea. My body shuddered involuntarily, jerking my arms violently as if I was desperately trying to remove something vile. I squealed in disgust, completely thankful that for this moment I was trapped within him.

"You okay?" Marino asked curiously, an eyebrow quirked up. "You look constipated."

"She's going to be the reason I crack one day," Lea growled, and started yelling, "You hear me in there? You need to stop doing that!"

I stopped jumping, furiously shook my head to destroy the image in my mind, and continued to pace on the platform. "It was hideous! DID YOU SEE ITS BEADY, LITTLE EYES?" I began talking to myself. "Nothing creepy here, he said. It couldn't possibly be dangerous, he said! EXPLAIN YOURSELF, PRINCESS!"

He spun on Marino, hands in the air to signal his frustration. "She hasn't stopped squealing like a little girl!"

Marino laughed. "Yeah, that's expected."

Lea must have glared at him because Marino, although grinning, restrained his laughter. I shushed my mutterings and squeals but continued to pace. I absolutely hate rats. Okay, hate's an understatement. I've studied biology long enough to learn all about where infectious diseases come from and developed a strong loathing for rats. The vectors for many diseases, especially plague.

"That was a heartless," Lea stated after I calmed down.

Marino looked around. "Really? I didn't see anything."

"Just follow me." Lea pursued the abomination in direction we saw the rat flee, not waiting for Marino to keep up with him.

He caught sight of the vermin, pointing out to Marino the heartless symbol on its red circus suit. The claws of this heartless were metal and red, strong enough to pry open the window to the house and sneak in. We crept closer and watched from the window as the heartless slipped through a small door in the living room.

"We have to get in there," Lea said in a low voice as to not attract unwanted attention.

Marino shot him a quizzical, disagreeing look. "Why? We're supposed to be looking for-"

"I know what we're supposed to be doing," Lea interrupted. "But we can't just let the people here get attacked. Maybe all I'd have to do is lock the small door."

We all heard the door to the living room open with a loud creak and the guys ducked their heads so that only the top of their heads could be seen. Well, Lea had to duck a little further due to his outrageous hair. Coraline was looking quite adventurous despite being in her orange pajamas, trailing after a small mouse in a red circus suit.

I twitched at the sight of the mouse, forcing myself to remain calm or risk pissing off the redhead.

The mouse quickly disappeared inside the door. As Coraline swung the door open, blue light casting a faint glow in the room, I noticed that she didn't seem to be fazed at all about the pale blue light emitting from the small door. In fact, judging by her facial expression I could see that she was excited.

With a confident grin, she crawled into the small door on her elbows and knees, leaving the door open behind her.

I groaned. "Great, now we have to go after her."

"How are we going in?" Marino asked after attempting to pry the window open. It refused to budge for him.

To this, Lea smirked. "By picking the locks."

Why am I not surprised?

"Done a lot of breaking and entering in your time, eh princess?"

_I might have._

I turned away from the window, not interested in watching Lea commit a crime or watching them go through a small door like that. My fear of tight spaces would create a panic episode and I wanted to avoid another scolding from Lea about panicking in his body.

Lea swore and let out a frustrated snarl.

"What happened?" I asked, not bothering to return to the window.

_Nothing. We're just crawling through the door, or attempting to._

That would explain the blue light that was shining through the white window in Lea's heart. The light felt magical and eerie, changing from blue to pink.

"Your ass is in my face, Lea," Marino said uncomfortably.

"I can't move," Lea told him, irritated.

"You're kidding? You're freakishly thin—how can you be stuck?"

"Because he's also freakishly tall," I remarked dryly, going unheard by Marino.

"Now that you've both established that I'm a freak," Lea spat. "Give me a shove, would ya?"

Marino grinned. "Permission to shove you? Absolutely." Marino heaved Lea, causing something to tear, but at least Lea was free to move forward. Lea sighed and crawled through the opening. "I think your chain or a zipper got caught somewhere," Marino said.

Not that we were listening. Something strange happened once Lea crawled out.

My skin became transparent, a strong gravitational pull gripped me and the white window sucked me into it. In a blink of an eye, I was thrown out of the window and tossed out in front of them. I was still transparent, but I was standing in the living room and not on the platform inside Lea's heart.

"Sole?" The guys asked in union, staring.

"What just happened?" I squeaked. Confusion and extreme uneasiness seized me tightly. "What did _you _do? What did _I_ do?"

"I didn't do anything!" Marino held up his hands defensively. "I'm completely innocent!"

Lea had his right hand under his chin and his left hand wrapped his right elbow, indicating that he was thinking. After a few seconds he said, "We must have stepped into another world."

"So? I didn't pop out when we arrived here," I replied.

"Different rules apply to every world," he answered, shrugging.

"So she'll be able to come out in some worlds?" Marino rubbed the back of his neck thoughtfully.

Lea shrugged again. "I honestly have no idea."

I frowned. "That doesn't make sense."

"Hey! Do I look like I have all the answers?" Lea snapped.

We heard other voices in the house and fell silent. The two voices sounded feminine, one younger than the other, and then a male voice spoke. It sounded like they were discussing dinner.

"Psstt." Marino got our attention. "Did either one of you notice that even though we crawled through a small door, we're exactly where we were before?"

He had a point. We were standing in the very same room we were in moments before but something was definitely off. I just couldn't put my finger on it.

"Yeah, we're in another world all right," Lea muttered. "It seems to parallel the other one."

"Parallel dimension?" Marino's hazel eyes lit up. "Cool."

"We need to get out of here before we get caught," I whispered.

Lea took the lead since he remembered the layout of the house, motioning to us when it was okay to move and follow him. A few times we thought we had been caught, seeing as the lady in the kitchen would turn around to face the entry.

She didn't seem right.

Like watching an overly friendly stranger who passed out candy, the children accepting it because they didn't know the candy had been poisoned. Or that person looking for their lost puppy, begged you for help, and invited you into their vehicle. The next thing you know you're strapped to a metal table and being dissected with a scalpel.

Everything screamed trap.

We made it passed through the front door of the house without drawing attention to us. I released the breath I had been holding, relaxing a little bit, and followed the guys to gather around the window that allowed us to peek into the dining room.

"Is it bad that we just ate and I'm already hungry?" Marino asked quietly, mouth nearly watering at the scene of rotating dishes, a gravy train and a chandelier that had a wide selection of beverages.

Lea smirked. "Growing pains."

A pink cake was brought in and as the parents spoke to her, I looked around.

"Guys, we have a problem," I said, nudging them but my elbow went right through them. Their heads turned to me anyway.

"Other than you're not here physically?" Marino gave me a funny look.

Lea frowned, noticing it too. "There's nothing here."

The landscape revealed to be very similar to the real Pink Palace apartments, but in the distance we could see nothing but white. We cautiously ventured out a little further and entered an area that was completely void of anything. No trees, no grass, no sky…absolutely nothing.

I glanced back at the house as it began to thunderstorm, noticing the rain was only hitting the roof of the house. "Geez, what's next?"

"Any chance we got sucked into outer space?" Marino joked. "Everything's so white. I thought a black hole would be… _black_."

Lea was unaware of our chatter since his attention was fixated on the thunderstorm. His green, alert and watchful eyes darted between the house and the void. I could practically see the wheels turn inside his head.

Oh, dear. I've spent too much time inside him.

I wonder if there are any consequences of being inside his heart.

"Penny for your thoughts?" Marino poked the keyblade wielder. "Or munny for your thoughts? Whichever works for you."

"I've got a really bad feeling about this," Lea commented, coming out of his pensive trance. He summoned his chakrams, causing Marino and I to summon our weapons.

I snorted. "And you thought for sure you picked a place that wouldn't traumatize my 'precious'. I told you not to jinx it."

"Why do you still use those?" Marino changed topic, motioning at Lea's chakrams with his wand. "Aren't you supposed to be using your keyblade?"

"What's the matter, princess? Is it still not coming out when called?" I watched Lea's face contort in annoyance. "Yeah, it's still not coming out."

"Would you stop calling me that! And it does sometimes!" Lea replied hotly. "But it doesn't come at will."

"When does it come out?" I asked.

"When it senses a keyhole." Lea scanned the environment. "No point in looking for it now."

"Why not?" I asked. "Marino and I can kidnap Coraline while you look for it."

He narrowed his eyes at me. "How _charming_, and you had the nerve to complain about me with kids."

A trumpet sounded loudly, forcing our heads to snap in the direction of the alarm, and I froze on the spot. Lea instantly clamped his hand over my mouth to muffle my scream.

Rats everywhere.

Not the small, normal ones. No, I don't have that kind of luck. These heartless rats were the size of horses. Their limbs hung at their sides at odd angles, making them appear mutilated. I gulped down as their glowing eyes stared at us.

Lea's eyes slid to mine. "Okay, do not panic. You can handle this."

I shot him a furious glare, wanting to scream 'ARE YOU KIDDING ME?'

"Fire!" Marino murmured, trying not to be loud so the residents in the house wouldn't come running out. The wand sparked and released a fire ball, damaging the rats only slightly and sent them scurrying about.

"Looks like they're fire resistant," Lea noted.

"Fantastic. Water!" A beam of water shot out of his wand, hitting one of them in the face. "And it looks like water doesn't seem to work either."

"Well, there are some heartless that are magic proof," Lea said.

Marino glared at him. "You could have told me that sooner."

"We run, right? Tell me that we run!" I was already backing away, not wanting to deal with the heartless rats.

Lea threw his chakrams at the rats, slashing through the horde, and munny dropped to the ground. The chakrams returned to their master moments later. He gave me a sidelong glance. "You ready to barrel through them?"

I returned the glance, suspicious of his intention. "What do you mean barrel through?"

He threw his chakrams again when the rats got too close and as the weapons flew, he eyed the way I held my shield. Experience in the battlefield has apparently made him nonchalant about the approaching heartless rats. I, on the other hand, was still fighting the urge to run in the opposite direction.

"Adjust your shield—no, not like that! You'll block your eyesight and that will leave you open to strikes and low leg blows," Lea instructed, putting a hand on my shoulder. His hand went right through me. "Ah, yeah. Forgot about that. I guess I'm on my own on this one then since you can't hit and Marino can't use his magic."

"Let me check, princess," I said, smacking him in the shoulder.

The shield made contact, forcing him to take a few steps back. I stared at the shield, at Lea, and then back at the shield. Well, okay, it didn't make sense but nothing has made sense since Earth disappeared. I might as well accept to expect the unexpected. Besides, this worked in my favor. The rats, heartless or not, can't touch me in this state.

The guys grinned.

"Now fix the way you hold that shield, pain in the ass." Lea caught his chakrams as they swooshed back to him.

"Fine. Better?" My shield covered my right shoulder and hip.

"What do you want me to do?" Marino asked. "And don't tell me to sit back and watch."

"Hit them with your wand then?" Lea suggested.

"Why not try something more productive? Like a different spell? Maybe they're just resistant to certain spells," I replied.

Marino rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I'll get right to that. You do realize that I'll run out of energy before I find the correct spell to kill them with, right?"

Lea rushed forward, chakrams spinning in his hands. I hesitated before following him, nervously staring at the rats. These were heartless rats. They couldn't carry the same diseases, but they could rip out my heart.

To think I believed nothing could make rats any worse.

I struck the heartless rat with the edges of the shield, applying more pressure so I could make deeper cuts and dug my feet into the ground to keep myself from falling over. These heartless rats were territorial, not giving up any leeway. All at once they stood on their hind legs. I recognized the stance when I used to study them in the biology labs. Granted, they were real rats and not heartless rats, but I figured they may show similar behavioral traits.

"Move away!" I said, backtracking. "They're gonna start boxing!"

Lea wasn't fast enough and he was smacked in the face with a clawed hand, a thin red line streaking on his face. There was a low, aggravated snarl and he viciously plunged his right chakram into the offender. Munny dropped to the ground.

A heartless rat's mutilated hand was suddenly too close to my eyes and I dropped low, vertically slicing through at its hind legs. It let out a loud roar, like a call to gather, and I ran to Lea's side.

"We are severely outnumbered," I mumbled, earning a grunt from Lea.

"Just relax, newbie," he said. "I'm still working on a plan."

"Do inform me when you have one then, princess."

"UGGGHHH! Didn't I tell you to stop calling me that!"

"Perhaps I can be of assistance?" a voice said from below.

Lea and I looked down to see a black cat at our feet. Its large blue eyes stared back at us.

Lea was the first to react. "Help us how exactly?"

The black cat began coughing, making all sorts of hacking and gagging sounds before a violet hued button came out of its mouth. "Use it. If you know how to utilize it."

"Well, we don't," I spat impatiently. "Care to explain?"

A smile stretched on its face, causing me to groan. Was every cat insane? Were they always this crazy? I don't remember the cats at home being this bizarre.

"You don't seem to mind a talking cat," it commented, sarcasm loud and clear in his tone of voice.

"You're not the first one we've met," I replied. "We're kind of in a bind here so could you-"

"Do either of you know how to use magic?" The black cat cut me off.

"Find a kid wearing blue. He can use magic," Lea answered quickly, slashing through another heartless rat.

The black cat picked up the button and swiftly went on its way to locate Marino.

"Lea? Don't you know how to use magic?" I asked loudly as I rammed my shield into one of them.

"I have limited knowledge and experience," he called back.

We fought vigorously until we heard Marino's voice shout, "POISON!"

A wave of purple and black light flashed, driving the shrieking rats away. Marino appeared with a triumphant grin on his face as he joined us, the black cat trailing behind him.

"Poison?" I wondered out loud and then smacked my forehead. "Damn! Rat poison! DUH!"

"It's okay." Marino patted me on the shoulder, his hand slipping through me. "We forget the obvious, and apparently the not-so-obvious."

"Yeah, I saw how you ducked after that heartless went for your eyes," Lea smirked. "Did you forget that it couldn't touch you?"

I stuck out my tongue at him and made a face. "It was instinct, okay?"

"You freaked out." Lea chuckled, his chakrams disappearing.

"Anyway," Marino droned out to prevent an argument. "That spell is supposed to continually wound them until they're dead. All thanks to this cat." Marino leaned down to give the black cat a good scratch behind its ears. "My name is Marino and this is my sister Sole."

I gave a slight wave.

"Yeah, I guess we owe you one," Lea said, folding his arms. "Lea- commit it to memory." His index finger pointed to his forehead.

The black cat chuckled. "Humans and their names."

"I'm guessing you don't have one then?" I asked.

"OH! I can name you!" Marino exclaimed with excitement.

The black cat narrowed its eyes. "I don't wish to be named."

Marino was about to say something so I interrupted, "Don't name him, Marino. You can't get attached to him since you won't be able to bring him along."

My brother's shoulders slumped. He pouted at me but I shook my head and he let out a long sigh.

"So kitty cat, do you know a way to get the little girl back to the real world?" Lea asked, tilting his head curiously.

"Coraline has already returned to the real world," the black cat answered.

"Oh great! That means we can leave, too!" Marino was already making his way back to the house, but I grabbed him by his vest to pull him back.

"I hear a 'but' coming," I said, narrowing my eyes at the black cat.

The black cat's smile stretched even further. "Coraline has the only key to the entrance of this world."

Marino groaned. "And she took it with her."

Lea frowned. "If I could just get the keyblade to come out, then we'd able to leave."

I stared at him curiously, somewhat recalling the old sorcerer's information. "The keyblade can open all doors or something, right?"

"Are you sure that you can't summon your keyblade?" Marino gave Lea a hopeful sidelong glance.

Lea held out his right hand, expecting the keyblade to form in his hand, but minutes passed without anything happening. He flicked his wrist. He flicked his other wrist. He waved his arm around in a circle.

Nothing.

He released a frustrated growl.

"Don't hurt yourself, princess."

"Bite me."

"Maybe magic can trick it open?" Marino inquired, trying to be helpful.

Lea sighed and shook his head. "That would be too easy."

I rolled my eyes, scornfully adding, "Of course there's always a catch."

The black cat chose to sit. "The Beldam will eat you before you're able to leave."

"The Beldam?" Lea's left eyebrow went up.

"That means old witch," I told him.

Lea shot me a glare. "Thanks, I'll call you whenever I need a human dictionary."

I waved him off. "I'm just saying."

"She is an old witch." The black cat looked annoyed. It was probably due to the frequent disputes. "One that devours children." Blue feline eyes narrowed at me. "You lack a body," the black cat mused. "Did the Beldam devour you?"

I frowned. "Hmph. Let me know if you find my remains." I knew that lady was a creepy pedophile. I really need to listen to my instincts more often. I glared at Lea. "Yeah, nothing dangerous here."

"Let it go, Sole," he hissed, a vein pulsing on his forehead.

The black cat meowed loudly to get our attention.

"Just ignore them," Marino mumbled, irritated, and sat down with the black cat. "They do this all the time."

"Sorry," Lea and I said in unison.

The black cat's eyes reduced to slits, questioning our sincerity, before returning to normal. "As you've realized, this world is incomplete. She's creating it to Coraline's liking to draw her in," he went on. "Coraline will return."

"What do you suggest?" Marino asked. "It's not like we can keep Coraline from coming back if we're stuck here."

"We could use the Corridors of Darkness," I proposed, immediately receiving an exasperated glare from Lea. "Go through the black portal, get the key from Coraline, lock it, and leave? Or destroy the key in the process?"

Green eyes narrowed into a dangerous squint. "You're kidding, right? You gave me so much shit before-"

"Yes but this is a desperate situation that calls for drastic measures," I interrupted his rant. "So is it a plan?"

Lea pinched the bridge of his nose before breathing out through his nostrils like a bull and spoke through gritted teeth, "Fine. It's a plan."

Something cracked and the house was suddenly engulfed by a faint blue light. The grass near the house began to knit together and expand further, slowly creating a garden. Yellow snapping dragons, pumpkins, glowing bleeding hearts that pulsed, yellow trumpets and blue flowers that I didn't recognize bloomed out of nothing. A Praying Mantis tractor formed over a small bridge. A bubbling sound was heard under the bridge, revealing a man made pond slightly covered with lily pads and having one large pumpkin.

"What…just happened?" Marino voiced my question.

"Apparently Coraline likes gardens," Lea answered, eyes scanning the new area.

"Guys, look." I pointed to the upstairs of the house, which was shining blue even though the rest of the house had returned to its normal state. "The attic?"

"She has a neighbor living up there. Someone named Bobinsky. I might have…collected some of his mail and handed it to him," Marino answered, scratching the back of his head sheepishly.

"So she's creating people now? Can she do that?" Lea asked, but the black cat was gone. "When did he leave?"

"Probably when the garden was created. He did say the Beldam shapes the world to fit Coraline's ideal home." I was looking up this time. "We've got a sky with stars and a moon now."

"Weird to watch it all form," Marino's voice trailed off, and then he added jokingly. "Do you think this is how God created our world?"

Lea sent him a questioning stare and rolled his eyes, choosing to walk away.

I sighed. "Marino, you know I don't believe in that stuff. Humans evolved from-"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah I know what you believe in. I was just making a joke, sheesh!"

"Hey, she's back," Lea announced to get our attention. "We need to hide before we're discovered."

I raised an eyebrow at him. "Why? We need to get her to safety first, don't we? She's going to see us anyway."

If looks could kill I'd be dead, rotting, and painfully roasting in hell.

The dark glare I received from Lea was menacing as he stomped back. "Do you ALWAYS have to question me?"

Marino folded his arms, an amused grin spreading on his face. "Blame school-they encourage students to question everything."

"I'm just saying I don't see the point!" I defended myself. "And whatever happened to using the Corridors of Darkness? I thought we were getting out of here?"

Lea roughly grabbed my head, or tried to but his hands slipped right through my head, causing his frustration to build. To humor him, I turned my head to follow his intended direction and saw Coraline approaching the newly formed garden with someone else. "As you can see, she is with her fake father. If he sees us, he'll report us to the Beldam. Do you see the point now?"

I scowled at him. "You failed to mention the fake parent accompanying her, princess."

His left eye twitched. "Well, _now_ you know."

"_Okay_, murder intervention!" Marino grabbed Lea's arm and dragged him away. "Let's go find a place to hide for a while." He glanced over his shoulders. "Hop to it, sis! We're in ninja mode!"

Ninja mode? Is ninja mode now code for 'lurking in shadows'? I blew my hair out of my face.

We went behind the garden shed and watched from there. The fake father showed the garden to Coraline, who glowed with awe and appreciation. I almost inched closer when I saw her get tangled up in the flowers, but quickly withdrew back into the shadows once the fake father cut her loose. He took her on the Praying Mantis Tractor and flew into the air. Much of their conversation was lost since we were too far away. Once they returned to the ground, they headed back inside.

The black cat jumped from the roof and onto one of the trees. Marino whistled at him.

"I am not a dog," the black cat responded with a disapproving scowl, but he jumped into Marino's open arms.

"My bad," Marino whispered, petting the top of his head.

We heard a door swing open and Coraline came out with another kid. His head full of brown curls tilted oddly to the side and I got a view of his black button eyes. She referred to this fraud as 'Other Wybie'.

"It didn't hurt, did it? When she-" Coraline stopped talking, her eyes catching a glimpse of something in the air.

I followed her line of sight to catch a mouse in a tiny blue blimp and watched the duo race upstairs. "What are they doing?" I asked suspiciously.

"They're going to watch a show," the black cat answered dryly. "One done by a mice circus."

"The basement's glowing," Marino stated.

"New plan then. We'll investigate it," Lea said. "Might give us some clues as to how to destroy the Beldam. So far we only know that she creates a world to a kid's liking and devours them."

"Let me get this straight- you want to stay in a world where you might get eaten? Instead of leaving and keeping Coraline out?" I glared at him.

He smirked darkly. "What are you so worried about? You're already in ghost form."

"Yeah, but you two aren't," I argued.

"As entertaining you two are, focus at the situation at hand," the black cat intervened, ears folded down and back in annoyance.

Marino rolled his eyes. "Give it up, cat. They're not going to stop."

"Something about buttons," I commented, changing topic since we were going to remain here anyway. I didn't have a choice since my landlord was hell bent on risking his and Marino's life in playing detective.

Lea nodded, for once in agreement. "The frauds all have buttons for eyes."

"Hmm...maybe it's not actually about the buttons, but about the eyes? Aren't eyes the window to someone's soul?" Marino pointed out.

Lea and I stared at him.

The black cat smirked. "He's onto something."

* * *

_Suntiger_: Are people reading this o.O? Hello!

1. Yes, I know it's not Disney but I love _Coraline_ (which I don't own).

2. Roommates -.- . Not even your best friend is a good candidate. Lea is learning the hard way to deal with an unwanted roommate/heart mate lol.

I apologize for constantly changing the summary. I just don't get a real good idea of where I'm going with a plot until midway through a story. Please review or favorite or...whatever!


	8. Through the Doors

**Chapter 8: Through the Doors**

We were inches away from the basement when I stopped at the top of the stairs that led down. My hand gripped the railing as I stared down below, uncomfortable with the unknown. After all, as children we were always told that monsters lurked in basements, and in this world a monster lurked out of basements. How was I to know that something worse wasn't waiting for us?

I bit my bottom lip. "How does she alter the world to a child's liking anyway?"

"She uses a doll to spy on them," the black cat responded, hopping out of Marino's arms.

"I'm not surprised," Lea muttered, going down the first few steps. "Don't girls usually dote on dolls?"

"Not in our family," Marino said. "Sole never played with them since she was too busy making volcanoes. Fiore chopped off their heads and would leave them under your pillow." He chuckled, glancing at me. "Kinda makes sense now that I think about it. You were into explosives. Fiore is into sharp objects. See Sole, Fiore does take after you. Both of you are violent. You just hide it better."

"I am not!" I snapped. "That was just a science project!"

Lea shook his head. "I'll correct myself—don't _normal_ girls dote on dolls?"

I scowled at Lea. "Isn't that stereotyping?"

"You make it sound like there's something wrong with girls playing with dolls!" Lea shouted, irritated.

"Hey, the basement stopped glowing. Shouldn't we head down?" Marino changed topic. "You know, to search for clues and such?"

Green eyes glared at me before turning around. Lea briskly entered the basement, almost banging the door to the entrance against the wall, causing me to frown.

Marino's hand popped out in my way when I attempted to follow the angry hedgehog. "If I say something, do you promise not to bite off my head?"

I glared at him, my right foot impatiently tapping the ground. "Depends."

"Sis," he said with a chuckle, "I think you should give him a break. He's this close to snapping your neck." His index finger and thumb were an inch apart.

"You're laughing about this though?"

"Well, it is kinda funny, but that's probably because it's my first time watching you interact with a guy. Are you like this in his head, too?"

I paused for a moment before sighing, and one of my hands began rubbing my forehead. "This is why I stick to my books."

He laughed at me. "You're awful."

"I guess I'll try to behave. For the sake of everyone's sanity," I said, but I felt like I was lying. Why should I 'behave'? It's not like I was actually doing anything wrong. If anything, Lea was just being a stubborn idiot!

Okay, that was childish but still.

A swoosh of air blew Marino's messy brown hair back and through my face. I stepped backwards and blinked, at odds with the hair that was going through me. I was still adjusting to things not touching me.

It was dark, cold and surprisingly reeked of sweets. The scent of cotton candy was the only thing luring me further into the basement. Lea created a small ball of fire in his left hand to avoid wandering around in the darkness. The ceiling was surprisingly high for being in a basement. The empty seats in the audience made the area seem more spacious until I noticed the sea of black dogs with bat-like wings that were hanging upside down. They didn't seem to be aware of our presence, sleeping as Lea and Marino lightly tiptoed to the stage, but they made me nervous all the same. Red curtains were drawn back behind two ceiling-high ladders to display a large wrapped up candy dangling from the ceiling by ropes. A pale golden light glowing from the inside revealed a strangely shaped figure, capturing the attention of the guys as they stepped closer to inspect it. I stayed behind them, glancing back and forth between the stage and the sleeping dogs.

"Should we remove the wrapper?" Marino asked in a whisper.

Lea studied the candy carefully and cautiously stepped back. "Nah, I don't think so."

The black cat's ears went down. "Coraline is gone."

I briefly cut my eyes to him. "How do you know this?"

"Her scent is gone," the black cat answered, as if it were the most obvious thing. "She must have returned to her world."

"Or maybe she got eaten," Marino said, his right hand on his throat. An invisible chill made him shiver.

"No, I would still be able to smell her," the black cat replied, making his way to the exit. "There is nothing for you all to find here."

Lea's focused eyes scanned the area, a frown developing on his concentrated face. "You might be right. I'm not finding anything useful."

"Looks like a normal theater, despite the vampire-like dogs," Marino stated.

"Candy for children," I muttered, examining the stage. I wanted to say I saw this coming because I sort of did. "Lea, do you know what's inside?"

"It looks like two women intertwined," Lea replied, a bit disgusted, but with a hint of morbid curiosity. "One has green skin, the other has pink skin."

"Yup. That's my cue to leave," I mumbled. "People linked together. I'm going to have nightmares."

"Maybe it's meant to scare her?" Marino asked, facing me for answers.

"No, the Beldam is shaping the world to draw Coraline in," Lea reminded Marino. "She wouldn't make anything that's going to scare her away."

"How does _that_ draw her in? Would this not creep her out?" I pointed at the candy, backing away to join the black cat at the exit.

Lea shrugged, closing his eyes tiredly as he attempted to remain calm since I was arguing with him again. "Again, you ask me like I have all the answers, but maybe she's into this kind of stuff?"

Marino agreed. "He's got a point. It's not as if we know her well enough to understand what she likes."

I frowned, stomach twisting in repulsion. "Oh, hell no. I hope she's not into this kind of stuff."

We left before we drew the attention of the dogs or disturbed whoever was inside the candy. The black cat vanished the moment I stepped off the last stair. I looked around to find nothing new. No rats. No new sections added. No sudden, bizarre thunderstorms. Just the fake stars in the fake sky and the fake full moon casting a light on the landscape. The crickets chirping in the night made it seem almost real. Wait, crickets chirping? That wasn't there before.

"Now what do we do?" Marino questioned Lea as we stood near the woods, far from the house. "Should we check the other places for clues? The garden?"

"I'm not going to bother. I should have known better to think that the Beldam would leave behind clues to destroy her," Lea sighed.

"That still leaves us with the buttons," I reminded him.

"Windows to the soul," Marino repeated.

"So she takes their eyes and eats their souls," Lea stated dryly.

I gave him a scornful glare. "Wow, way to sound sympathetic to those who lost their souls to her."

He scowled at me. "I was just-"

"Really you two? Can you just shut up and try to solve the problem? I rather keep my soul, thank you very much," Marino snapped. His patience was apparently thinning out.

I inhaled deeply. Lea released another noisy sigh.

"So as long as Coraline keeps her eyes, she should be fine," I said. "Right?"

"Hopefully she's not into losing her eyeballs," Lea joked.

I glared at him but chose to not say anything.

"What about the heartless rats?" Marino asked. "Her minions, right?"

"Obviously," Lea drawled.

"Do you think we'll be able to take them all out, or do you think she'll just create more as we destroy them?" I asked.

Lea laughed mockingly. "You? Destroy them? You wanted to run away from them in the last fight we had."

I twitched. I was trying to be nice, really, I was! "This is true, but I can get it done if it needs to be done."

"It needed to be done last time!" he barked.

"I will use poison on you both if you don't cooperate," Marino threatened.

The lion-mane moron crossed his arms behind his head. "Relax, your soul will be just fine as long as you keep your eyeballs."

"Very comforting," I retorted.

We heard a girl's voice in the distance. "The Other Mother hates cats?"

The black cat walking on top of a broken down tree responded, "Not like any other mother I've ever known."

We all stopped talking, confused, but concentrated on their conversation.

"What do you mean? She's amazing!" Coraline replied with much gusto.

"You probably think this place is a dream come true, but you're wrong. The Other Wybie told me so."

"That's nonsense—the Other Wybie can't talk."

The black cat said something. I couldn't quite catch it, then he meowed and took off.

"Coraline?" I asked out loud. "I thought she just left?"

"Seems like time works differently here," Lea said quietly, eyes narrowed.

"What makes you say that?" Marino gave him a sidelong glance.

"She's wearing new clothes," Lea answered, head nodding at Coraline's blue turtleneck sweater with silver stars and black pants.

Marino groaned. "That means we've been here for days-maybe even months."

Lea shook his head. "Her hair would be longer if it's been months."

I frowned and my feet began moving without me realizing it. I walked right up to her, causing her to nearly bump into me.

"WOAH!" Coraline waved her arms in front of her, attempting to prevent a collision but she went right through me like everyone else.

"You need to go back home," I told her, my voice taking on a bossy attitude. "It's too dangerous here for you."

"Who are you?" Coraline gawked at me. "Why are you so…"

"Transparent? Clear? Ghost-like?" I gave her some suggestions. "Take your pick, but it doesn't matter. You need to get home now."

"Are you kidding? Why?" Coraline crossed her arms stubbornly over her chest. "I'm having fun here."

"Aren't you concerned about what your parents will think if they see you missing?" I tried to reason with her. It was the first thing I could think of.

She snorted. "Pfft. Please. They probably don't even realize I'm gone."

I was hit in the chest with a familiar sinking feeling. "I can sympathize with that but it's not safe here."

"Where's your proof that it's not safe?" Coraline argued.

To creep her out or to not creep her out. It's not as if you can just tell a kid that someone wants to eat her soul.

She mistook my silence as a sign that I had no evidence. "See, I'm just having fun! And you're boring!"

"I am not boring! Just because my common sense rules over my sense of fun doesn't mean I'm boring!" I snapped. My eyes caught the Other Wybie rounding the corner and a red flag went off in my head, signaling I had to leave. "Look, I gotta go, but you should leave soon."

Coraline narrowed her eyes at me, her glare burning into my back as I walked away to return to my previous hiding spot. I stared at the ground, refusing to acknowledge Lea's amused face.

"Nice going," he greeted me dryly. "I couldn't have done it better myself."

I sulked, mumbling, "Shut up."

Coraline's blue heeled boots clicked on the stairs as she headed for the basement with the Other Wybie.

Marino whispered. "She just went down to the basement."

Lea was already on the move, willing his chakrams to come forth. "Let's go see how she handles candy from strangers."

I caught Marino rolling his eyes as we trailed after him. We stopped at the entrance of the theater, surprised to find normal dogs sitting on the chairs. A mermaid was singing, or rather arguing, against another woman with gigantic breasts. The scene on stage turned into chaos as the two elderly women bickered with each other.

"Where…where did they come from?" I asked.

"I'm not staying for the show," Marino announced, going back to the stairs.

Lea grimaced. "She seems fine here."

The guys left me behind to gawk at the show.

A bucket of water was placed on stage by a dog. The spotlights zeroed in on the two elderly women at the top of the ladders. They began jumping up and down, shedding their skins to uncover younger versions of themselves.

One dressed in pink. One dressed in green.

My stomach did another flip-flop, knowing I had just answered my own question. I walked out not wanting to watch the rest. I was just glad to know that at least Coraline wasn't in immediate danger. We were standing amongst the trees when Coraline and the Other Wybie came out of the basement. The fake parents were waiting for Coraline at the top of the stairs, asking her if she approved. Coraline was giddy, giving them detailed descriptions of her night as the Other Wybie trailed silently behind. He stopped at the bottom of the stairs with a frown on his face, earning a disapproving glare from the Other Mother as she made a gesture to smile and closed the door on him.

He walked away with his shoulders slumped and his head tilted to the side.

"So what do we do now?" Marino's hazel eyes were lost on the Other Mother, a worried expression on his face.

"Well, we can't just go charging in," Lea said. "We don't know what she's capable of other than creating worlds and people."

"So we're just going to wait? Wait for what?" I frowned.

"Until the opportunity makes itself known," he replied, casually leaning against a tree with his arms folded behind his head. This was starting to become his signature posture.

I narrowed my eyes at him. "Seriously? She's in there with that monster, probably going to get eaten, and you just want to wait? I thought warriors were all about fighting in order to do what's right?"

"Look, we have to be smart about this," he snapped at me. "I'm saying wait. Just trust me on this, okay? Nothing bad is going to happen to Coraline. I'm sure she's smart enough to keep her soul."

He sounded so sure of himself that I would have mistaken it for arrogance if not for his eyes. Dark, rigid, and alert green eyes that only experienced soldiers had. Grandpa would get those eyes sometimes. His mind would become clouded with the memories of the war he was reliving and his eyes would regain the appearance of a determined soldier rather than the soft, somewhat absent minded old man I knew him to be. Then he would proceed to shout out orders and wave his arms around, pretending to fire off a gun.

I backed down.

A few hours later, or at least it seemed like a few hours later, Coraline rushed out of the house and into the trees. Lea nodded his head in the direction she ran, signaling to follow her. Coraline was soon joined by the black cat. He walked beside her as we kept our distance from the pair. The woods slowly began to disintegrate into a white space.

The black cat was quick on his feet as he kept up with Coraline's pace. "She only made what she knew would impress you."

"But why? Why does she want me?"

"She wants something to love, I think. Something that isn't her, or maybe she just loves something to eat."

"Mothers don't eat…daughters?" Coraline gave the black cat a look.

"I don't know. How do you taste?" The black cat chuckled.

"No, they don't eat daughters normally," Lea said loud enough for the duo ahead of us to hear. "Cannibals are typically frowned upon."

Coraline jumped, spinning to face the speaker who startled her. "You! What are you doing here?"

"Saving your butt," Marino answered, wand in his hands.

We had walked far enough to where we were back in front of the house. A mouse ahead of us spotted us and sounded its trumpet. The black cat raced toward it, chomping down on its body as he caught it in his mouth. The dead mouse transformed into a rat.

I squirmed uncomfortably and forced myself to look away. To distract my mind, I asked Coraline, "Did the Beldam try anything?"

"You again." Coraline stared at me. "You were right."

The guys snorted at her.

"Yes, I know," I sighed, not wanting to say I told her so.

Marino reworded my question. "Did the Other Mother hurt you?"

She shook her head. "She wanted to take my eyes. She said I needed to sow in buttons if I wanted to stay here."

"Good thing you didn't go through with it," Lea told her. "She would have eaten your soul."

"How do you know that?" Coraline frowned, adding, "You still haven't told me how you got here."

"Just accept that we're here to help," Lea smirked.

"What he means is that we followed you here because we thought there would be trouble," I said, knowing Coraline wasn't going to go for that.

Coraline paused to stare at me but then raised her left hand. "You already know my name but…what's yours?"

I smiled. "Sole. I'd shake hands but I can't touch you in this form."

We all stood in front of the door to the house, four pairs of eyes fixated on the door knob. Well, five. I forgot that black cat counts.

Marino glanced at Lea. "Are we finally going to charge in?"

"We're going to protect Coraline so we can all get out of here. The door to the real world is in the living room," Lea said. "You've got the key, right?"

Coraline patted her pocket, nodding.

"All right," I muttered, summoning my shield. "Let's get this over with."

"Wait, do you guys have something for me to use?" Coraline eyed our weapons hopefully. "I can't fight her with nothing."

Lea handed her an umbrella that was left in front of the door. "Here you go."

I rolled my eyes. "Don't worry about it, Coraline. We've got you covered."

"How are you using your shield if you can't touch things?" Coraline looked at me skeptically.

"The shield still works," I answered.

Coraline gently opened the door, peeking into the house first. Marino and Lea followed suit with their heads above her. We entered the house slowly, keeping an eye out for anything suspicious.

"Something's up," Lea stated. "It's too quiet."

We rounded the corner to get to the living room and were confronted by a horde of heartless rats. They were standing on their hind legs in the hallway, yellow glowing eyes squinting at us.

I chuckled in disbelief at our luck. "We're just full of jinxes, aren't we?"

Lea sliced through three of them. "Yeah, cursed like that." He broke down the door to the living room. "Everybody in!"

I heard Marino yelp. "I can't!"

I glanced behind me to find Marino on his back, wand missing from his hands, and being carried off by the heartless rats. Lea growled, chasing after the heartless rats that held him captive. I looked around for his wand and found it on the floor, in between the legs of heartless rats. They were having a hard time picking it up.

"That doesn't belong to you!" I whacked them with the shield. A few made a popping sound and showered me with munny. "I suppose that's better than having guts all over me."

I expected Coraline to laugh or comment but heard nothing. I looked over to see the door shut and Coraline missing.

I exhaled loudly in frustration, realizing she must have gone in without us. I picked up the wand from the floor and it disappeared from my hands, causing me to stare at the ceiling in annoyance. The wand probably returned to Marino. I glanced down the empty hall, debating for a few moments whether I should help Lea hunt down Marino or try to save Coraline. Lea was strong enough to handle the heartless rats and Marino was probably armed now so he won't be in too much trouble. Coraline, on the other hand, was powerless in the Beldam's hands.

Guess that means it's time for me to confront the pedophile.

I tried opening the door and found it to be locked. I placed my foot against the frame and yanked the knob but it remained stubbornly shut.

Spectacular.

"They say even the proudest spirit can be broken with love," A woman's silky voice came through the doors. "Of course, chocolate never hurts- like one? They're coco beetles."

"I want to be with my real Mom and Dad," Coraline insisted. "I want you to let me go."

I smacked my shield against the door, using the edges to cut into it. It did absolutely nothing. I kept at it though, assuming that the door would eventually give.

"This would be a great time to learn how to make things explode," I muttered to myself, arms already getting tired.

"Is that any way to treat your mother?"

"You aren't my mother."

Yep. I need to break down this door pronto.

"Apologize at once, Coraline." The woman's voice went up an octave.

"No."

Oh, I see this ending very badly.

"I'll give you to the count of three. One, two-" The shrill of her voice made me back up when she reached the number three.

I hid behind one of the other doors as the living room door swung open and watched as a towering, skeleton thin woman dragged Coraline with her. She shoved Coraline into a mirror, the upper half of her body disappearing into the mirror as well.

"You may come out when you learn to be a loving daughter," she said crossly.

She left the mirror and straightened the black and white pencil skirt she was wearing with her long, slender fingers. She took in a deep breath to calm her nerves, making her bony cheeks sink deeper and the beauty mark on her cheek appeared more noticeable. She adjusted the collar of her top and her bob cut hair as if her feelings were actually hurt. She walked right past my hiding spot and stomped upstairs. I was surprised that she didn't see me, but guessed the only reason she didn't detect me was because she was outraged.

Anger tends to blind people.

I walked up to the mirror and stuck my hand in, watching it as it went through the mirror. This could be because I was already in a ghost form or because there's a hiding place behind the mirror.

I stuck my head in but came face to face with a giant glowing beetle in another room. "Damn, I can't get to her."

"Well, where is she?" Red, spiky hair was the first thing I saw. Lea was holding Marino up from the back of his collar. "Did you keep an eye on Coraline?"

"She's stuck in there." I pointed at the mirror, examining Marino for any injuries. He seemed out of breath but fine. "I can't get in. Marino, are you okay? You look winded."

He nodded. "Yeah, I thought they were going to make me their human sacrifice, but then Lea and the Other Wybie showed up."

Lea rolled his eyes, an amused smirk on his face. "Heartless don't make human sacrifices. They just steal hearts."

"So why were they carrying me away?" Marino glared at him.

I ignored the bickering two and looked at the Other Wybie, his face was sown into a forced smile. "Well, we see what happens when you don't do as the Other Mother says. Wybie, I mean, Other Wybie, can you get Coraline out?"

The fake Wybie put his arms into the mirror and pulled out a shrieking Coraline.

"Calm down," Marino told her. "You'll attract attention."

"You guys!" Coraline shouted.

The fake Wybie made a shushing sound, an index finger on his lips.

Realizing his lips were sown, Coraline removed the thread that forced him to smile. "Did she do this to you?"

We crowded into the living room just in time to hear the Beldam yell, "Coraline?"

"Ladies first." Lea gestured to the small door.

Coraline tried to get the fake Wybie to go in first. "Come with me."

The fraud shook his head, pulled off his glove, and blew away his hand to show her that he could not exist in her world.

Marino frowned. "Dude, that's creepy."

The Other Wybie shoved Coraline into the door and Marino followed her in. Lea was right behind me, waiting for me to start crawling into the door but I stared at it. Thoughts of being trapped inside that small space hindered me.

"We don't have all the time in the world, Sole," he said impatiently.

"Oh, no, I don't think so. I don't think it's entirely necessary for me to go in," I responded, throat closing up as I backed away from the small door.

Lea groaned. "This is not the time to—woah!"

My eyes widened in shock and fear as one of my worst nightmares came to life. A heartless rat the height and weight of a sumo wrestler had lifted Lea up over his head like he was a doll. If its size didn't distinguish it from the other heartless rats we've encountered, then its red and black fur did. This rat heartless didn't wear a circus suit with a heartless embalm on it, but it had the symbol on its chest. It had a strange toothy grin on its face that allowed a long tongue to dangle out. As I gawked at the new heartless rat, the furniture in the room began to move. The glowing insects were not heartless since they belonged to this world. They were able to grab the Other Wybie and hold him captive, but couldn't touch me as they tried to do the same.

"Well, this isn't the first time furniture annoyed me," I said, looking at the fake Wybie. "Hang on, I'll get you out."

Lea rolled his eyes. "Oh sure, just leave me hanging here."

A clapping noise captured our attention, causing our heads to snap in the direction of the sound. The Beldam stood with her hands together, gently touching her cheek to show off her smug smirk.

"You let Coraline escape," she said, voice silky but promising all sorts of cruel punishments. "I can't just let you go now."

"Lady, we don't need your permission to go," Lea countered.

Her eyebrows furrowed. "I'd like to see you try."

With a loud, inhuman snarl she went after me since I was the only one not held captive. I instantly threw up my shield and blocked her clawing nails, but she stopped after a few slashes and just ripped the shield out of my hands. The shield vanished the moment it was taken from me.

She took a swipe at me, neither of us feeling anything since she wasn't able to make contact.

"I can't touch you," she said with a disappointed pout. "Oh well. That means you can't touch me either." She turned her attention on the fake Wybie and gave him a gruesome smile. "You're next."

With that, the threads that kept the fake Wybie came undone. I watched him, dumbfounded, as he crumbled apart like a sand castle breaking down. By the time she got to Lea I was too late to realize that he was pale and sweating. The heartless rat hadn't budged an inch, still tightly gripping onto his waist and his left arm.

"Bring him down but don't release him," the Beldam ordered.

The heartless rat obeyed, much to my surprise, and held Lea out to her.

"You must be feeling tired," she grinned. "This heartless does absorb a good amount of your energy."

That would explain why he wasn't struggling or making a smartass remark.

He just glared defiantly at her.

"What beautiful eyes you have," she said, her fingers lightly tracing his cheek. "They will belong to me." She dug her hands into his face, receiving a painful grunt and kick in the stomach from the keyblade wielder.

That didn't deter her at all. She merely laughed at him.

"LEA!" I screamed, a mixture of rage and fear seizing my lungs. "LEAVE HIM ALONE!"

My right hand moved on its own, holding out in front me and the shield abruptly appeared. I impulsively rushed forward, clobbering the Beldam's back with the shield. She continued to laugh as if it only tickled her until the edges of the shield got her in the neck, causing her to howl loudly. She released Lea, who thankfully still had his eyes, and chased after me. I squeaked and dodged her sharp fingernails, toppling over the beetle furniture. I whacked the dresser away and tackled the heartless rat with the shield once I had put some distance between me and the Beldam. I hacked one of its hands off with a force of energy I didn't know I had. Lea limped forward and dropped on top of me while the heartless rat hissed and pulled back, bearing its fangs at me as it favored its severed arm.

Lea's face was marked by the Beldam's fingers, his cheeks supporting two deep triangular cuts that were dangerously close to his eyes and leaked out blood.

"Duck!" I yelled and Lea fell to the floor without any effort.

The edges of my shield went right into the mouth of the heartless rat so when I made a slashing move, the top of its head came right off. The heartless rat exploded, dropping a gold item that had tiny crescent moons and star patterns on it.

"Hey! HEY! Watch your back!" he shouted at me.

I spun around in time to block the Beldam. Granted, she couldn't touch me, but that didn't mean she couldn't go through me to get to Lea. She was knocked to the other side of the room. I raced to her, pouncing on her with the shield underneath me to make sure I'd actually hit her. She grabbed the shield and tossed me off. I landed a few inches in front of her.

"Lea! The Corridors of Darkness!" I yelled as I stood my ground against the seething Beldam.

He shook his head. "I can't. She'll just follow us."

"I didn't say I was going with you." I whacked the Beldam backwards repeatedly and judging by the way her facial skin was beginning to crack a little she was getting really pissed off. "I'll meet up with you later."

The shock in his voice was obvious. "Did you hit your head or something?"

"You're too weak to fight right now," I explained, glancing over my shoulder. "Logic dictates that I distract her so you can get away. It's not like she can harm me anyway."

He nodded his head and opened a black swirling portal. "I'm coming back if I don't see you in five minutes."

"Aww, you're so sweet," I muttered. I turned back to the Beldam and smacked the shield on her face, earning a loud shriek from her.

He disappeared into the Corridors of Darkness, taking the gold item with him. I stood in front of the remnants of the portal to make sure she didn't jump in and was left with a homicidal, grinning maniac when the portal completely closed.

"Do you really think you can escape me? This is my world and you will all be trapped here." She took two long strides to me before I began to fade and growled with displeasure. "What's going on? Why are you vanishing?"

"Oh yeah, like I'd tell you," I replied, arms folding over my chest.

A familiar gravitational pull yanked me from where I was standing and the next time I blinked I was right in front of Lea, surrounded by white.

"That didn't take long," I said.

"That was really gutsy what you did back there," he smirked. "Smart, too. Getting me out of there and tricking the Beldam to believe you'd actually stay behind."

"It's not like she knows I currently reside in your heart," I stated. "Wherever you go, I go. How are you feeling?"

"Better. Thanks for letting me take the elixir," he said, raising the empty item. The triangular wounds under his eyes were gone. Color had returned to his face and he didn't look like he was about to pass out so I took his word.

"The what?"

"The item that the heartless dropped was an elixir. It's a stronger healing item than a potion," he enlightened me.

"Oh, yeah. No problem."

There was a stretch of silence between us as we tried to register what just happened. My stomach began to bubble with a sick, irritated feeling that made me want to vomit. The scene where she killed the fake Wybie was replaying over and over again in my mind. She created him so it made sense that she could destroy him, but I hope it hadn't been painful to crumble away like that. That he didn't regret his choice in saving us.

"You were using darkness," he said, his solemn voice disrupting my thoughts.

I stared at him as realization hit me. "That's why I managed to kill that heartless rat, right?"

He frowned. "Couldn't you tell? You were radiating darkness. You completely annihilated that heartless and you took on the Beldam by yourself."

I froze. "No…I didn't notice. I was too…"

Lea groaned loudly in frustration, his hand slightly smacking his forehead. "You were too afraid. You do realize that your fear feeds your darkness, right? And that darkness grows because you don't want to be afraid."

"Hey! She was about to rip out your eyes and eat your soul. I'm pretty sure any other human being would have been terrified," I snapped defensively.

He sighed, waving me off. "Yeah, yeah, yeah. No need to rub it in."

I could punch him sometimes. I really could. Instead of showing gratitude, I get a lecture about being afraid when the situation actually called for it.

"Why did you portal here and not to the real world?" I asked, changing topic before I couldn't resist the urge to punch him anymore.

"I couldn't make it that far. Didn't have enough energy," he answered, a bit more quietly, and then adding bitterly, "Ugh, okay, thanks. I appreciate you watching my back but you can't just panic like that and use the darkness."

An eyebrow went up. This guy experienced more mood swings than any girl I've ever met. "Did you just sense my emotions again?"

He scowled at me. "Why are you asking me stupid questions again?"

"Wow. Touchy, aren't you?"

"Oh shut up. I'm not used to it!"

"Right. Because I am."

A vein throbbed on his forehead. "It's not just your emotions I'm dealing with. It's my own, too. Did you forget that I've spent the last ten years as a Nobody? I didn't have emotions for that time, and they take time getting used to again."

Oh. I didn't think of that…but still.

"That doesn't mean you can take it out on me," I replied.

He flinched uncomfortably, paused and then closed his eyes as he breathed in. His face smoothed out, becoming more serene. He appeared deep in thought for a few moments until his eyes opened and stared at me with a serious expression.

"Well since you're feeling better," I started to say but Lea cut me off.

"We have to kill her, the Beldam."

"While I am all for it, I must question your motive since at this point we can just leave," I stated. "Marino and Coraline are both safe, and Coraline has the key. I don't think she'll come back here at any point of time."

"I don't want this thing hunting other children," he replied darkly. "How do we know for sure there's only one key? And what if she's able to leave this world and into the real one?"

My back straightened at the thought of another girl like Coraline or a child like Fiore being attacked. "Haven't thought of that. Do you have a strategy at least?"

Lea brought out his chakrams, rolling his shoulders to prepare himself. "I will when we get there." His smirk teased me. "You seem to have a psychotic inner child. That will come in handy."

I snorted, waving my hand. "Psychotic? No. I just really wanted to be a mad scientist."

* * *

Suntiger: Hello readers! I most certainly hope you enjoyed this chapter. It's a lot darker and violent. Hmm...maybe I should warn people about the violence ahead of time? And this is nothing compared to the future chapters. But it IS rated T. So...yeah?

Thank you, everyone, for supporting my writing! It's awesome to have feedback! I must say you have to check out HeartofFyrwinde's stories. He's brilliant and has been helping me out.

If anyone has ideas, I am open to them. Until next time!


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